War on Gaza: Israel kills UN aid worker in Gaza’s Rafah, say local authorities
The Israeli military has shot and killed an NGO worker and wounded another in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian officials in the besieged territory.
According to the local authorities, the pair were in a United Nations vehicle displaying the UN flag and insignia when they were targeted.
The Palestinian government media office in Gaza said both people hit in the attack were foreigners. Local media said the person killed was a Palestinian driver and the wounded worker was a foreigner.
“We strongly condemn the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against both the Palestinian population and foreign aid workers in Gaza,” a statement released by the government in Gaza said.
“We urge all nations to denounce these reprehensible acts.”
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli officials said they were aware of an incident in which one person was killed and another wounded.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the killings.
There was no immediate comment from the UN.
Since October, at least 216 aid workers have killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom were Palestinians killed by Israeli aerial bombardment, according to figures compiled by the Aid Worker Security Database.
In April, Israeli drone strikes killed seven aid foreign workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) after they brought a new shipment of food into the famine-afflicted territory.
The attack on WCK workers highlighted the flawed humanitarian notification system in Gaza.
At least 357 humanitarian-run sites and convoys in Gaza whose coordinates had been shared in advance with warring parties were hit before the WCK attack, Middle East Eye previously reported.
The majority of the hits to deconfliction humanitarian sites – 352 – were to locations run by Unrwa, the largest aid organisation operating in Gaza, including a food distribution centre and schools sheltering thousands of civilians.
