UNRWA aid worker killed in Israeli strike on food warehouse in Rafah

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said that at least one staff member was killed and another 22 were wounded when Israeli occupation forces targeted a food distribution centre in the eastern part of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

UNRWA’s head of communications, Juliette Touma, said that a flour distribution centre was bombed resulting in casualties. “UNRWA uses this facility to distribute much-needed food and other life-saving materials to displaced people in southern Gaza,” she pointed out.

“Today’s attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centres in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine,” said the agency’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. “Every day, we share the [map] coordinates of all our facilities across the Gaza Strip with parties to the conflict [to avoid being hit]. The Israeli army received the coordinates of this facility yesterday.”

READ: Gaza humanitarian aid: deliver by land, urge charities

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said that four people were killed in the strike on the Al-Jeneina neighbourhood in central Rafah. An AFP photographer said that the wounded were transferred to Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah for treatment.

As part of its war against the Palestinians in Gaza since October, Israel has killed more than 31,000 people, mainly children and women. A further 73,000 have been wounded. The crippling blockade imposed by the apartheid state on the enclave has left the 2.3 million population on the verge of starvation. Indeed, the health ministry has said that at least 27 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza as a result of the Israeli blockade.

Aid agencies have said repeatedly that Israel enforces cumbersome security inspections on aid shipments in order slow down delivery. The occupation state also refuses to allow the entry of some essential items, such as water desalination units.

Israel has forcibly displaced 85 per cent of Gaza’s population amid its crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine. At least 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

The Zionist state stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ICJ ruling in January ordered the Israeli government to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

READ: Israel releases shipment of Turkiye aid to Gaza after weeks of blocking it