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UNRWA: Staff killed in Gaza highest-ever UN toll

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
8 Jan 2024 12:43
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The international aid agency says the number marks the highest ever number of killed UN-staff in history.

UNRWA workers talk together in the playground of an UNRWA school that has been converted into a shelter for forcibly displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, on October 25, 2023. (AFP)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says that 146 of its staff have been killed in the Gaza Strip, amid the 90-plus day brutal Israeli genocide currently taking place.

The organization made the announcement on Sunday, stressing that the figure is the highest toll for casualties among United Nations staff in the history of the international organization.

In fact, around 130 of the relief organization's facilities, which include schools, have been directly targeted by Israeli bombs and shells across the entire Gaza Strip, according to UNRWA.

Throughout the Israeli aggression against Gaza, civilians have taken refuge in UNRWA institutions, due to their internationally-protected status. However, the Israeli political and military command has made it a point to cross all red lines, attacking residential areas, religious sites, hospitals, schools, media offices, and UNRWA sites.

UNRWA sites under attack by IOF

Earlier on January 3, UNRWA announced that 315 refugees were killed due to strikes on its sites in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

"212 incidents impacting UNRWA premises and the people inside them have been reported since 7 October (some with multiple incidents impacting the same location), including at least 21 incidents of military use and/or interference at UNRWA premises," the organization said.

It pointed out that "this includes 60 direct hits on UNRWA installations and 68 different UNRWA installations sustaining collateral damage. In total at least 315 IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] sheltering in UNRWA shelters have been killed and at least another 1,148 were injured since 7 October."

Yesterday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that 22,835 people have been martyred due to the Israeli aggression while 58,416 others were injured in 93 days of war.