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• 'These killings, including one at a community kitchen, come as the humanitarian crisis further deepens and most Palestinians in Gaza rely on food aid,' says spokesperson

GENEVA

The UN human rights office on Friday voiced deep concern over the continued killing of humanitarian workers in Gaza, including the recent killings of five aid workers from an Istanbul-based international humanitarian organization.

"Our office is deeply concerned by the continuous killings of humanitarian aid workers, including the latest killings of five members of IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation," UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told Anadolu.

"These killings, including one at a community kitchen, come as the humanitarian crisis further deepens and most Palestinians in Gaza rely on food aid," he said.

Laurence emphasized that humanitarian workers are specifically protected under international humanitarian law, and that "intentionally targeting them may amount to a war crime."

"In addition, Israel, as the occupying power, is required to ensure and facilitate the delivery of essential supplies and services in Gaza," he added.

According to the IHH, five of its staff members working with the UN World Food Program (WFP) were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, and two others were seriously injured.

"Five of our colleagues working on our project in Gaza in cooperation with the World Food Program (WFP) were martyred in the recent attacks carried out by the occupying Israeli forces over the past two days, and two others were seriously injured," the organization said in a statement on X.

The IHH condemned what it called Israel’s "heinous attack" on humanitarian workers who "risk their lives every day to deliver aid to the oppressed people of Gaza."

The aid workers killed were identified as Mohammed al-Mubayyid, Ahmed Bustan, Mutaz Rajab, Jamal al-Mubayyid, and Ishaq al-Tayf.

The incident comes amid mounting warnings of famine and total collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza. A UN-supported assessment has warned that Gaza’s population of approximately 2.1 million Palestinians faces "extreme food insecurity" and is at a "critical risk" of famine.

Earlier on Friday, the UN humanitarian office said aid deliveries into Gaza remain severely restricted, describing the current flow of food as a "trickle" into an area facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

"It is drip-feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), during a press briefing in Geneva. "It's not a flood."

Israel has pursued a devastating offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million population.