The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, highlighted that 136 employees of the organization have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the conflict, “something that has never been seen before in the history of the UN.”
In a post on the social network, their lives support civilians in Gaza.”
136 of our colleagues in Gaza have been killed in 75 days, something we have never seen in @UNITED NATIONS history.
The majority of our staff have been forced to leave their homes.
I pay tribute to them and to the thousands of humanitarian workers who risk their lives while supporting civilians in Gaza.
– Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 23, 2023
Guterres’ statement came on Friday, hours after the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced the death of one of its employees and his family in the Palestinian enclave.
“We are deeply saddened to announce the death of our colleague Issam Al Mughrabi and his family, killed in an airstrike in Gaza,” UNDP stated on the X social network.
“He will be remembered as a beloved member of our team,” the UN program added.
The agency recalled that “the United Nations and civilians in Gaza are not targets” of the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
At least 18 people were killed on Friday after the Israeli army bombed a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
The attack by the Israel Defense Forces, which took place east of the refugee camp, also left dozens injured, according to local sources cited by the agency.
Also on Friday, during another offensive, Israeli planes destroyed a water desalination plant in the city of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent also reported another “heavy shelling” near the Al Amal hospital, in the city of Khan Younis.
Israel declared war on Hamas, in retaliation for the attack carried out by the group on October 7 in Israeli territory, which left 1,139 dead, most of them civilians, according to the most recent report by Israeli authorities.
Some 250 people were also kidnapped that day and taken to Gaza, 128 of whom remain captives of the movement, considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel.
The Israeli offensive by land, sea and air has already caused more than twenty thousand deaths, including eight thousand children and 6,200 women, and 52,600 wounded, according to figures from local authorities controlled by Hamas, and around 1.9 million displaced people. , according to the UNITED NATIONS.
Around 130 hostages remain in captivity in Palestinian territory, where the displaced population survives in tents in the middle of winter and in a deep humanitarian crisis.
Source: TSF
