IDF Killed 366 UN Workers & Family Members in Gaza

A report by the U.N.’s Crisis Coordination Center, leaked to Drop Site, shed additional light on what’s been the deadliest-ever war for United Nations staff.

United Nations flag at half-mast at UN headquarters to honour colleagues killed in Gaza, Nov. 13, 2023. (UN Photo/Evan Schneider)

By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams

A leaked report obtained by Drop Site estimates that Israeli forces have killed at least 366 United Nations staffers and their family members in the Gaza Strip since October, an indication of the grave threat Israel’s ongoing assault poses to humanitarian relief workers and the enclave’s broader civilian population.

Drop Site‘s Ryan Grim reported Wednesday that the confidential figures, assembled by the U.N.’s Crisis Coordination Center, show that three family members of World Food Program staffers and four dependents of U.N. Children’s Fund workers were among those killed by Israeli forces. The total number of U.N. staffers killed so far is 195, according to the data.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the primary aid agency operating in Gaza, has seen the largest impact on staffers and their family members. The leaked report estimates that Israeli forces have killed 158 dependents of UNRWA staffers since October.

Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, aided by U.S. weaponry and diplomatic support, is by far the deadliest-ever war for U.N. personnel, who have repeatedly been targeted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Over the weekend, Israeli soldiers fired on a U.N. convoy heading toward Gaza City. UNRWA Commissioner-General said that “the teams were traveling in clearly marked U.N. armored cars and wearing U.N. vests.”

“While there are no casualties, our teams had to duck and take cover,” he added. “Like all other similar U.N. movements, this movement was coordinated and approved by the Israeli authorities.”

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, giving a Security Council briefing on April 24, 2024. (UN Photo/Evan Schneider)

Targeting humanitarian relief personnel is a war crime.

Grim noted that the leaked report is just “the latest in a series of alarming findings regarding Israel’s actions in Gaza,” much of which is facing famine conditions due to what U.N. experts recently described as a “targeted starvation campaign” by Israel.

During a 12-hour period earlier this week, Israeli forces killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded around 200 others — mostly women and children — in a barrage of attacks on the city of Khan Younis, according tothe Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

Palestinians in the ruins after an Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip on Oct. 8, 2023. (Mahmoud Fareed, Palestinian News & Information Agency or Wafa, in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The confidential U.N. data emerged hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday afternoon. Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are expected to boycott the prime minister’s speech.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the lone Palestinian American in Congress, argued Tuesday that Netanyahu “should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court,” alluding to that body’s request for an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister.

On Tuesday, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested on Capitol Hill during a peaceful Jewish-led demonstration against Netanyahu’s visit and U.S. complicity in the IDF’s mass atrocities in Gaza.

Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

This article is from  Common Dreams.

Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.