A United Nations official was killed along with more than 70 members of his extended family in an Israeli airstrike near Gaza City, as hundreds have been killed in intensified bombing since the Security Council resolution UN meeting on Friday which was criticized as “woefully insufficient”. “.
Issam Al Mughrabi, 56, who worked for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for three decades, was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike on Friday.
“For nearly 30 years, Issam has worked with UNDP through our program of assistance to the Palestinian people,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target. »
Offering condolences to Issam’s family and colleagues, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed in a message on X that “humanitarians should never be victims” and called to a ceasefire.
So saddened by this tragedy @ASteiner. My deepest condolences to all those who knew and loved Issam and his family, you and everyone at @UNDP.
Humanitarians should never be victims. We need a #CeasefireNOW In #Gaza.
– Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 23, 2023
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 136 UN personnel have been killed.
On Friday, the international agency’s Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said that in the entire history of the UN, the UN had never witnessed the death of so many of its staff members.
“Most of our staff were forced to leave their homes,” he added in a message on X, paying tribute to UN members working in Gaza.
Difficult weekend for Gaza and the Israeli army
The death of the veteran UN staffer and his family members comes as Israeli airstrikes continue to kill hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In the early hours of Sunday, a 13-year-old child was also killed by an Israeli drone near El Amal hospital in Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
More than 8,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 166 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours in Gaza.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud said from Rafah in southern Gaza that Saturday night other residential areas in the city of Deir el-Balah, where residents of the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps were ordered to evacuate, were subjected to heavy shelling, and their homes were bombed. were destroyed. He added that the eastern part of the Gaza Strip was also experiencing heavy airstrikes.
“For now, the search for people under the rubble continues,” Hani said.
Separately, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Alan Fisher highlighted how the weekend was also difficult for the Israeli army in Gaza, with five soldiers killed on Friday and eight on Saturday, due to heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip.
“You heard the Israelis suggest that in northern Gaza they had military control. The fact that they are still losing soldiers, that rockets are still being fired from Gaza into Israel, suggests that they do not have that control and that means that this phase of the war is likely to last longer,” Fisher said. . , reporting from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Difficulty delivering aid
The UN adopted a resolution on Friday after days of delays that watered down the text. He called for aid to be delivered but failed to agree on a ceasefire. Aid groups say incessant bombing and fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas have hampered the delivery of aid to the besieged enclave where people are going hungry.
“The real problem is that the way Israel is carrying out this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” UN chief António Guterres said.
“An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security, staff able to work safely, logistical capacity and the resumption of commercial activity. These four elements do not exist,” he added.
UNRWA Director Thomas White shared similar concerns and stressed that conditions on the ground for aid workers must be safe for aid deliveries to be made.
“We need a ceasefire that will end the massacres of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza,” he said.