UN Calls for Accountability of Those Responsible for Targeting Humanitarian Workers in Gaza and Lebanon  

The United Nations today called for accountability for those responsible for the victims of humanitarian workers, whose number reached a record level this year, reaching 281, stressing that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon caused the increase in the number of victims.

The UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said in a statement today that “humanitarian workers are being killed at an unprecedented pace, and their courage and humanity are being hit by bullets and bombs,” pointing out that 2024 has become the deadliest year ever for humanitarian workers.

“This violence is unacceptable and devastating for relief operations,” Fletcher stressed, adding: “respect for international law must be enforced, those responsible must be brought to justice and this time of impunity must end.”

Also in Geneva, the World Health Organization counted the death of 226 health workers and patients in Lebanon from October 7 last year to the 18th of this month.

In turn, the spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “OCHA”, Jens Laerke, confirmed during a press conference in Geneva that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has led to an increase in the number of victims of humanitarian workers, recording the martyrdom of more than 333 humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip alone since October 7, 2023.

Laerke pointed out that most of the victims work for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), of which about 243 employees have been killed since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza.

Amal Farhat