GENEVA (AN) — This year is the deadliest on record for aid workers mainly due to the Israel-Hamas war in occupied Palestinian areas, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The deaths of 281 health care workers, delivery staff, and other humanitarians were recorded globally in 2024, surpassing the previous record of 280 aid workers killed last year, OCHA reported on Friday.
“Humanitarian workers are being killed at an unprecedented rate, their courage and humanity being met with bullets and bombs,” said Tom Fletcher, a British diplomat who became the new OCHA chief this month.
“This violence is unconscionable and devastating to aid operations," he said in calling on everyone to abide by international humanitarian law.
Most of those killed – 268 – were local staff for non-governmental organizations and U.N., Red Cross and Red Crescent agencies, OCHA reported, citing figures from the London-based and U.S.-funded Aid Worker Security Database. The other 13 killed were international staff.
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OCHA says the Gaza war is driving up the numbers, with more than 320 humanitarian workers killed since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Many of the aid workers were killed in the line of duty while providing help, according to OCHA, and most were staff members of the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA.
But the database also shows high levels of violence, kidnappings, injuries, harassment, and arbitrary detentions in nations such as Afghanistan, Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen.
Along with the rising numbers of aid workers killed is an increase in the numbers of civilians who are dying in conflict zones. More than 33,000 civilian deaths were recorded in 14 armed conflicts in 2023, up 72% increase from a year earlier.
The Gaza war's death toll has risen above 44,000 civilians and combatants; more than half the fatalities are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas as Gaza's ruling authority.
Since the start of the year, some 116.6 million people – or 37% of the nearly 315 million people in need, have been helped by humanitarian organizations, according to OCHA figures. Last year, some 143.6 million people, or 39% of the 368.5 million people in need, were reached.
The U.N. Security Council agreed in May on a resolution that requires the U.N. secretary-general to recommend new ways of protecting aid workers from attacks. The recommendations are due to be presented next week.
