A United Nations official has been killed along with more than 70 members of his extended family in an Israeli air strike near Gaza City, as hundreds of people have been killed in intensified bombardment since Friday’s UN Security Council resolution that has been criticised as “woefully insufficient”.
Issam Al Mughrabi, 56, who worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for three decades was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli air strike on Friday.
“For almost 30 years, Issam has worked with UNDP through our Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People,” UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target.”
Offering his condolences to Issam’s family and colleagues the World Health Organization’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed in a post on X that “humanitarians should never be victims” and called for a ceasefire.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 136 staff members of the UN have been killed.
On Friday, the international agency’s secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that throughout the UN’s history, they had never witnessed the death of their staff in such large numbers.
“Most of our staff have been forced from their homes,” he added in a post on X, paying tribute to UN members working in Gaza.
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