The UN organisation for Palestinian refugees reported that a hit on a car in Gaza on Wednesday killed a UNRWA employee, the most recent aid worker fatality in the war-torn region.
“I can confirm that an UNRWA car was hit. One UNRWA colleague was killed,” UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP.
According to an AFP photographer, two individuals were killed in the early Wednesday hit in Khan Yunis, a city in southern Gaza.
Since the war began early last year, two-thirds of UNRWA’s facilities in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 223 staff members have been murdered, the organization’s chairman, Philippe Lazzarini, stated last month.
Numerous Gazans who have been displaced by the conflict have taken refuge in UNRWA buildings, such as schools. Israel has attacked a number of these schools that have been converted into shelters, claiming that Hamas uses them as command centres. The Palestinian terrorist organisation has refuted this accusation.
The protest on Wednesday coincided with Israel’s efforts to limit UNRWA’s operations. Earlier this month, the Israeli parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee approved two legislation that basically sought to terminate the organization’s operations and privileges in Israel.
One law aims to stop UNRWA from running any kind of organisation, offering any services, or engaging in any kind of action in Israel. According to the second draft, UNRWA employees won’t have the same privileges or immunity as other UN employees in Israel.
Israeli authorities are accused of limiting assistance deliveries, which has made UNRWA and the larger humanitarian response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza a point of contention in the conflict.
According to an AFP count of Israeli official estimates, Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza and claimed 1,206 lives, the most of them civilians.
More than 42,792 people have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, primarily civilians, according to estimates from the UN-recognized health ministry of the Hamas-run enclave.
Earlier this year, the agency lost funds when Israel accused 12 of its 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the Hamas attack on October 7.
According to an internal investigation that was made public in August, nine workers “may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October”.
In order to aid Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, UNRWA was established in 1949.
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