GENEVA

A “perfect humanitarian storm” – that is how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) describes Gaza, where aid workers endure the same hunger and fear as those they try to help.

The warning comes as Israel’s war nears its third year, following what aid agencies describe as the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers – and 2025 is already following the same trajectory.

“Last year was the deadliest year on record for colleagues killed from different organizations – we’re talking about hundreds,” IFRC spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa told Anadolu. “The vast majority, sadly, are from Gaza, the West Bank and Sudan. And 2025 is already following the same trend.”

At least 265 aid workers had been killed worldwide as of Aug. 14, 2025, approaching the previous year’s toll of 383, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.

Latest figures from the UN show Israeli forces have killed at least 562 humanitarian workers in Gaza over the past two years, including 376 UN staff members and 54 staff and volunteers of the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

As violence against humanitarian workers reaches record levels, the IFRC warns that Gaza is at the heart of a trend threatening to make attacks on aid workers a new feature of war. “The risk here is to normalize something that should never be normalized,” said Della Longa, lamenting that people who devote their lives to saving others are instead “attacked, killed, wounded, detained.”

- Living with hunger and famine

Inside Gaza, where the UN officially declared famine in late August, the hardship is staggering. Aid workers describe colleagues telling children to go to bed early so they do not feel the hunger or holding on to a single piece of bread until the end of the day to give to their children.

“One colleague told me what it means to live with famine and hunger: you dream of food you cannot have, and when you finally get even a piece of bread, you must keep it for your child,” said Della Longa. “Then, after giving it to them, you have to say sorry and ask them to wait for more because you will not be able to provide. As a father myself, I found this absolutely shocking.”

Doctors and nurses in Gaza have been working frantically, often without rest and basic needs, enduring unimaginable personal loss and suffering while trying to save others falling prey to endless Israeli attacks.

“There was never anyone to replace them ... even for a couple of days. They were killed, they were not protected, and now even they don’t know how to have meals during the day,” he said. “Weakening doctors and nurses means weakening entire communities.”

Carla Drysdale, a World Health Organization spokesperson, echoed the concern and drew attention to the attacks that not only destroyed the functionality of hospitals and ambulances, but also injured and killed thousands of health workers.

Both organizations say that without protection and access, humanitarian action in Gaza will remain paralyzed.

- ‘Impunity once risks impunity everywhere’

Over the past two years, Israel has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and wounded nearly 170,000, according to figures from Palestinian authorities confirmed by the UN and other international organizations.

A UN independent international commission of inquiry concluded last month that Israel is committing genocide in the enclave, where its siege and blockade on all essentials has also triggered a famine that has killed more than 450 Palestinians, including over 150 children.

Earlier in August, UN experts warned that Israel’s targeted destruction of Gaza’s health system amounts to “medicide.”

In a statement, UN special rapporteurs Tlaleng Mofokeng and Francesca Albanese said Israel was “deliberately attacking and starving healthcare workers, paramedics and hospitals to wipe out medical care in the besieged enclave.”

“In addition to bearing witness to an ongoing genocide we are also bearing witness to a ‘medicide,’ a sinister component of the intentional creation of conditions calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza which constitutes an act of genocide,” the experts said.

Della Longa warned that the erosion of respect for aid workers is no longer confined to war zones.

“If you think about 10 years ago, talking about the protection of humanitarians in this way would have been not understandable, because you don’t attack humanitarians. This trend is so widely spread that it is really deeply concerning and shocking.”

He called for enforcement of respect for existing laws and stressed the need for mechanisms to end impunity.

“If there is impunity once, it means there would be impunity everywhere. This is a precedent that we cannot accept,” he said.

“The issue is the political will. Humanitarians must do the humanitarian work and call on governments to take their own responsibility,” he said.

He concluded with one plea: “Don’t shoot the Red Cross. Don’t shoot humanitarians. Don’t shoot the people who are saving lives and alleviating suffering.”