A UN team inspects an unexploded 1,000-pound bomb lying on a main road in Khan Younis. (Photo by OCHA)
United Nations, August 21 (RHC)-- The United Nations has revealed a distressing rise in the number of aid worker fatalities in conflict zones, largely linked to the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on Gaza.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday released a report saying that the number of aid workers killed in 2023 reached 280, more than twice the 118 fatalities recorded in the previous year.
"With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 2023 marked the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community," OCHA said in a statement on World Humanitarian Day.
It added that the year 2024 “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome,” with a provisional count from the Aid Worker Security Database reporting that 172 aid workers have been killed so far as of August 7th.
The rise in deaths, mainly due to Israeli air attacks in Gaza between October and December last year, represents a 137 percent increase compared with 2022, when 118 aid workers were killed.
Over 280 humanitarian workers have been killed since the start of the ongoing Gaza war, which has now entered its 11th month, primarily due to airstrikes. The majority of the killed are Palestinians employed by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), as reported by OCHA.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, in a post on X said that the ongoing war on Gaza has resulted in a tragic toll over the past 10 months, with at least 289 aid workers, including 207 from UNRWA and 885 health professionals, having been killed.
“Many were killed in the line of duty while providing humanitarian assistance or medical care to the injured & the sick. Alongside them more than 160 journalists & media workers were killed,” Lazzarini said adding that “The war in Gaza broke all existing rules of war.”
Reports also indicate that the "extreme levels of violence in Sudan and South Sudan" have impacted the rising death toll in both the current year and the previous one.
UN demands end to impunity
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, emphasized that merely commemorating the humanitarians who lost their lives in the deadliest year on record is not enough.
“In Sudan & many other places, aid workers are attacked, killed, injured & abducted. We demand an end to impunity so that perpetrators face justice,” the UN chief wrote in a post on X on Monday.
In a joint letter to the UN General Assembly, at least 413 globally humanitarian organizations wrote that the civilians and aid workers had become the principal victims in Gaza and other active conflicts that persist around the world.
“The brutal hostilities we are seeing in multiple conflicts around the world have exposed a terrible truth: We are living in an era of impunity,” the letter said, calling for an end to attacks on civilians, enhanced protection for aid workers, and accountability for those responsible.
Defying a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Israel continues its relentless assault on Gaza that began on October 7.
After more than 10 months of conflict, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 40,000 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children and extensive regions of Gaza are devastated, compounded by a severe blockade restricting access to food, clean water, and medical supplies.
