UN staff members fear being ‘a target’ for Israeli strikes on Gaza

United Nations staff members in the Gaza Strip have fears of being "a target" of Israeli forces who are continuing attacks on Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

A senior UN official said on Saturday that the international organization’s workers are fearful that they are "a target" as the Israeli forces hit Gaza shelters.

On Wednesday, Israeli regime forces attacked the UN-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza.

Israel hits another school in Nuseirat camp, 14 killed, many under rubble

Two UNRWA staff were also among those killed Wednesday in the attack on the Al-Jawni school in central Gaza.

The attack, which killed 18 people including six employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), was the deadliest single incident for the UN agency in almost a year since the Israeli war machine started its genocide in Gaza.

Following the Israeli air strike targeting the school-turned-shelter in Gaza last week, teachers and other workers providing aid, services and relief to refugees in Gaza fear they are now the targets of Israeli attacks.

“One colleague said that they’re not wearing the UNRWA vest anymore because they feel that that turns them into a target,” Sam Rose, UNRWA's senior deputy director told AFP on Saturday after visiting the shelter in Nuseirat.

“Another one said that that morning, their children had stopped them from coming into the shelter,” he said in an online interview from Gaza.

The colleagues were gathering for a post-work meal in a classroom when the strike flattened part of the building, leaving only a charred heap of rebar and concrete.

“A son of one of the staff had brought a meal into the building,” Rose said, adding the group then debated whether to eat it in the principal’s office before settling on what appeared to be a classroom decorated with pictures of scientists.

“They were eating when the bomb hit.”

The Israeli regime claimed the attack was a "precision strike" against Hamas; declaring nine of the 18 victims had been Hamas fighters.

Rose said bogus statements by the Tel Aviv regime were counterproductive, irritating the UN workers, and aggravating their morale.

“They were particularly angry by the allegations that had been made as to the involvement of their colleagues in extremist and terrorist activities,” Rose said.

“They felt that this really was a stain on the memory of dear colleagues, dear friends,” he added, describing the mood as “bereft” and “desperate.”

Since the Israeli regime started its genocidal war on Gaza, UNRWA has lost at least 220 members who have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza.

UNRWA, which was established decades ago to manage the continued flow of displaced Palestinians forced to flee their homes due to ongoing Israeli attacks, has more than 30,000 employees in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere.

The Zionist regime has been weakening UNRWA, alleging some of the UN’s employees were involved in the Hamas resistance movement’s October 7 retaliatory operation.

The Israeli regime failed to provide any evidence for its main allegations which were noted and investigated by the UN.

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