Israel targeting UNRWA center in Gaza to have negative effect: UN

TORONTO, Canada

UN officials on Wednesday reacted with exasperation to Israel’s shelling of a UNRWA distribution center in the southern Gaza Strip, which medical sources said killed at least five people and injured several others, with one official saying the attack would have a “negative” effect.

"Devastating news for our colleagues in Gaza who have borne so much loss already, and for the families they were trying to help. How are we to maintain aid operations when our teams and supplies are constantly under threat?" UN Humanitarian Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths wrote on X.

Emphasizing that the UN aid operation teams on the ground "must be protected," Griffiths also wrote: "This war has to stop."

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the coordinates of all UN facilities had been shared with the parties involved.

He said the attack is "going to have a negative impact. It has a negative impact on our ability of staff to work it has a negative impact on the ability of those who need aid to get aid."

"I think it's another symbol of the fact that there is less and less respect for humanitarian work or less and less respect for the protection that the blue flag should bring," said Dujarric, adding that UN teams are "paying the ultimate price" for their aid efforts not only in Gaza but in other parts of the world.

"There are different mechanisms at the national and the international level for accountability. Sometimes that accountability takes a long time, but it needs it will need to come," he said, highlighting the lack of accountability for perpetrators.

Asked about Israeli far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir defending a police officer who killed a 13-year-old Palestinian in occupied East Jerusalem, Dujarric said: "These are horrific statements to make. The killing of children can only be condemned."

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group, Hamas, in which less than 1,200 people were killed.

At least 31,272 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 73,024 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

At least 27 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza as a result of the Israeli blockade, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.