A driver working for the United Nations World Health Organization was killed – Monday – and a Jordanian employee at the organization was injured, when the Israeli army targeted a car belonging to the organization east of the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources at the European Gaza Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, reported the arrival of the body of the driver – whose nationality was not announced – and the injury of a foreign national, both of whom work for the World Health Organization, after the Israeli army opened fire on their car east of the city of Rafah.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that the dead man worked as a driver of the car that was targeted by Israeli occupation army fire.
For its part, the official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that security officials in Israel have begun investigating the injury of two United Nations employees by gunfire near the Rafah crossing.
She added, “At this stage, it is still unclear whether the two were hit by Israeli army fire or gunmen.”
This comes after Israeli military vehicles expanded their incursion into the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, bypassing Salah al-Din Street towards the west towards the Al-Jeneina and Al-Salam neighborhoods, coinciding with the intensification of artillery and air raids on the city, which witnessed the displacement of about 300,000 Palestinians within a week.
Targeting foreign crews
For its part, the government media office in the Gaza Strip condemned the Israeli army’s targeting of foreign crews working in the Strip, and held the American administration responsible for that.
The office said that the Israeli occupation army killed – Monday evening – an employee and wounded another Jordanian employee in Rafah Governorate, where they were targeted while they were riding in a United Nations vehicle, carrying the flag and insignia of the United Nations.
He condemned in the strongest terms the ongoing crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and against the foreign crews working in the Gaza Strip, and called on all countries of the world to condemn these ongoing crimes.
He also held the American administration and the Israeli occupation fully responsible for continuing to commit war crimes and genocide, and for the crimes of intentionally targeting foreign crews in the Gaza Strip.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, expressed his deep sorrow over the killing of an employee and the injury of a female employee by Israeli bullets that targeted a UN vehicle in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the United Nations, said in a press conference that the Secretary-General was deeply saddened when he learned of the killing of an employee of the United Nations Department of Safety and Security and the injury of another employee following an Israeli targeting of their United Nations vehicle.
He explained that this is the organization’s first international employee to be killed in Gaza since the outbreak of war, recalling the killing of about 190 Palestinian employees at the United Nations, most of them from UNRWA.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) also expressed its sadness over the killing of a United Nations aid worker in the Gaza Strip.
The agency’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said that no one is safe in Gaza, including aid workers, adding that “aid workers and UN staff are not a target and should never be a target.”
Jordanian conviction
While the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in a statement the attack on a United Nations vehicle in the city of Rafah, which resulted in the death of an employee and the injury of a Jordanian employee, as a result of Israel expanding its military operations in Rafah.
The Ministry stressed the need to ensure protection for United Nations and relief personnel who play a major humanitarian role for the Palestinians, in light of the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe that the Strip is witnessing.
The Ministry held Israel responsible for this, as the occupying power, and as a result of its continued raging war on the Gaza Strip.
She indicated that she is following up with the United Nations on the medical condition of the Jordanian citizen who was injured as a result of the attack, and ensuring her exit from the Gaza Strip.