The UN’s acting emergency relief coordinator, Joyce Msuya, said in a statement that “the normalisation of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere.”
She demanded in a statement that “people in power act to end violations against civilians and the impunity with which these heinous attacks are committed.”
According to the United Nations, more than half of the 280 aid workers killed worldwide in 2023 died during the first three months of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday, August 19, 2024, that aid workers were killed in 33 countries in 2023, the “deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community.”
However, OCHA warned that this year “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome” with 172 aid workers killed so far this year as of August 7, 2024.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that 207 of its staff members have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war in October last year.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said on X, “In Gaza, there have been way too many of them since the war started 10 months ago. At least 289 aid workers including 207 UNRWA team members and 885 health workers lost.”
Also, the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza stated that countries are unable to help and protect humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip.
“Today the world celebrates the sanctity of humanitarian work, while international humanitarian organisations remain silent in the face of the Israeli occupation’s violations of international humanitarian law,” it said in a statement.
According to the organisation, 82 civil defence workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7 and 270 wounded by Israeli attacks while more than 75 percent of civil protection centres are destroyed.
It added that Israeli forces have killed 885 medical personnel in the enclave and stopped operations in 34 hospitals and health facilities.
Furthermore, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRC) said that “21 PRCS members have tragically lost their lives while on duty in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” since Israel’s war on Gaza erupted on October 7 last year.
In a post on X marking World Humanitarian Day, the organisation said, “We must act for humanity, to safeguard those who risk everything to protect others.”
Hamas Calls For Global Action Against Israeli Attacks On Aid Workers
In a statement to mark World Humanitarian Day, Hamas called on all countries to “criminalise the racist and criminal practices and violations” committed by Israel against humanitarian aid teams supporting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“Our people have been subjected to the most heinous genocide in modern history for 10 months, which will remain a stain of shame on all those who have failed to stop it, end it, and prosecute its perpetrators in international courts.”
Hamas
The Palestinian group said that Arab, Islamic and international aid organisations must “intensify” their efforts to help Palestinians, especially in the besieged enclave.
As Israel’s war on Gaza and other conflicts continue to claim lives, 413 humanitarian organisations wrote to the UN General Assembly to call for protecting civilians and aid workers.
“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,” they write in the letter published by Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the highest-level humanitarian coordination platform of the UN System.
“This status quo is shameful and cannot continue,” they wrote, adding that fatalities among humanitarian workers doubled in 2023 compared with the previous year, and that the 2024 fatalities are already “staggering.”
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