GENEVA (AP) The United Nations said Friday that more humanitarians, including delivery workers, medical professionals, and assistance workers, have been killed in 2024 than in any other year.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Middle East’s bloodshed has been the leading cause of the 281 humanitarian deaths that have occurred worldwide this year.
According to OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke, 2024 has already become the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers globally. In Geneva, he informed reporters that the number had topped the previous high of 280 fatalities for the entire previous year.
In nations like Gaza, Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine, and others, humanitarians are doing brave and selfless work. According to him, they exhibit the finest that humanity has to offer, and they are being slain in record numbers in response.
He noted that the humanitarian community, particularly those on the front lines of the response, will be rocked by these figures.
FILE- Medics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and volunteers at the National Disaster Response Team “NDRT” , participated in a drill during a graduation ceremony of medics, in Mughraqa, central Gaza Strip, Sept. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Adel Hana), File)
Associated Press/Adel Hana photo
According to the U.N., the data are from the Aid Worker Security Database, a project financed by the United States and managed by Humanitarian Outcomes, a British organization.
13 international staff members and 268 national staff members, including those from non-UN agencies like the Red Cross and Red Crescent, were among the 268 humanitarians slain.
The database revealed on Friday that 230 humanitarian workers had been killed in occupied Palestinian territory. Whether it was the West Bank or Gaza, it did not explode.
According to Laerke, there are dangers to relief workers outside of Gaza as well, with reports of high levels of violence, injuries, kidnappings, harassment, and arbitrary detention coming from Afghanistan, the Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen, and other places.
According to OCHA, 333 humanitarians have died since the most recent clash between Israel and the violent Hamas group broke out on October 7, 2023, when the Islamists invaded southern Israel, murdering around 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and kidnapping another 250.
More than 44,000 people have died in the 13-month-old conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to local health officials on Thursday. More than half of the deaths are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count. Without any proof, the Israeli military claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants.
The Associated Press, 2024. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. It is prohibited to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute this content without authorization.
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