As of: March 14, 2024, 10:01 a.m
Comments
Press
Split
Logo of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) (symbolic image).
© Debbie Hill/Imago
Israel is planning a military offensive in Rafah despite international warnings.
Before that, the army attacked a Hamas operational unit.
Gaza - The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said at least one of its staff was killed and 22 were injured when Israeli forces attacked one of its food distribution centers in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack and said it hit a Hamas commander.
Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had killed Muhammad Abu Hasna in the attack on the building in Rafah, describing him as "involved in seizing control of humanitarian aid and distributing it to Hamas terrorists."
Hamas confirmed on Wednesday the death of Abu Hasna, who Hamas said was deputy head of police operations in Rafah.
Israel's army: Hamas commander targeted killed in Rafah
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said the distribution center near the Egyptian border was hit, even though the center's coordinates had previously been shared with Israel and other parties to the conflict.
UNRWA did not provide further information on the nature of the attack or the identity of the staff member killed.
Local human rights organizations reported that five people were killed.
The
Washington Post
could not immediately confirm a higher death toll.
Read The Washington Post for free for four weeks
Your quality ticket from washingtonpost.com: Get exclusive research and 200+ stories free for four weeks.
The attacks on police and a U.N. aid facility came during a massive hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip, which aid groups say was caused in large part by Israel's obstruction of aid deliveries to the enclave.
Israel has attacked police forces in the past, including those responsible for protecting aid convoys.
The remaining officers then withdrew, leaving the trucks and supplies to be looted by criminal gangs and desperate civilians.
In recent weeks, as aid deliveries collapsed, at least 27 people died of malnutrition and dehydration in hospitals in northern Gaza, where the need is particularly acute, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
According to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, more than 31,272 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
Israel denies restricting aid deliveries to Gaza
Israel has denied restricting aid deliveries to Gaza, instead blaming the shortages on humanitarian groups that it says are unable to distribute aid quickly enough.
Aid groups say the limited number of entry points, cumbersome Israeli inspection procedures and Israeli attacks on aid convoys and the local police guarding them have severely hampered relief efforts.
My news
Ukraine armada unnerves Russia blogger: read drone number “unimaginably large”.
Putin threatens Finland and Sweden: “Destruction systems will be relocated” read
Taurus surprise from Pistorius?
Bundeswehr should prepare cruise missiles
GDL demands too moderate?
In the rail dispute, the Left wants a 30-hour week with full wage compensation
The “challenger” is fighting with itself: British challengers are sinking into reading dirt
56 minutes ago
Vote in the Bundestag is approaching: “Russia is fed up with Taurus” read
“Today’s attack on one of the few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes at a time when food supplies are running low, hunger is widespread and is escalating into famine in some areas,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the Gaza Strip UNRWA, in a statement.
“Every day we provide the parties to the conflict with the coordinates of all our facilities in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“The Israeli army received the coordinates of this facility yesterday.”
In a post on “And further: “How are we supposed to maintain relief efforts when our teams and supplies are constantly threatened,” he wrote.
“They need to be protected.
This war must stop.”
The US military is again dropping humanitarian aid from the air into the northern Gaza Strip
Other countries, including Jordan, Egypt and the United States, have responded to the crisis by dropping food and other aid by air and pledging to open an aid corridor by sea.
The U.S. military airdropped humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday for the ninth time, Central Command said in a statement.
The U.S. planes dropped more than 35,000 ready-to-eat meals and over 28,000 bottles of water, the statement said.
But diplomats and humanitarian officials have warned that airdrops and sea deliveries are not enough to meet Gaza's massive needs.
"We have to take action.
The survival of the population in Gaza is at stake,” EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Wednesday before a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.
He said opening air and sea routes for aid was "good" but "not enough."
“You can’t replace hundreds of trucks by deploying parachutes,” he said.
“The most important thing is to open the borders by land.”
Referring to Wednesday's UNRWA strike, Blinken said Israel "has a responsibility and an obligation to do everything possible to ensure that humanitarian workers can do their work."
“And that means, among other things, ensuring that humanitarian facilities that are clearly marked are not attacked,” he said.
To the authors
Kareem Fahim
is Istanbul bureau chief and Middle East correspondent at The Washington Post.
He previously worked for the New York Times for 11 years and, among other things, reported on the Arab world as a correspondent from Cairo.
Kareem also worked as a reporter at the Village Voice.
John Hudson
is a reporter at The Washington Post covering the State Department and national security.
He was part of the team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Relations for its coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He has reported from dozens of countries including Ukraine, China, Afghanistan, India and Belarus.
Fahim reported from Beirut, Hudson from Washington and Soroka from Tel Aviv.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on March 14, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.