Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military airstrike in Khan Younis within the Gaza Strip on Aug. 18, 2025.
Mariam Dagga/AP
conceal caption
toggle caption
Mariam Dagga/AP
UNITED NATIONS — A document 383 assist staff have been killed in world hotspots in 2024, almost half of them in Gaza throughout the struggle between Israel and Hamas, the U.N. humanitarian workplace mentioned Tuesday on the annual day honoring the hundreds of people that step into crises to assist others.
U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher mentioned the document variety of killings should be a wake-up name to guard civilians caught in battle and all these attempting to assist them.
“Assaults on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of worldwide inaction and apathy,” Fletcher mentioned in an announcement on World Humanitarian Day. “Because the humanitarian group, we demand — once more — that these with energy and affect act for humanity, shield civilians and assist staff and maintain perpetrators to account.”
The Support Employee Safety Database, which has compiled studies since 1997, mentioned the variety of killings rose from 293 in 2023 to 383 in 2024, together with over 180 in Gaza.
Many of the assist staff killed have been nationwide workers serving their communities who have been attacked whereas on the job or of their houses, based on the U.N. Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, often called OCHA.
To date this yr, the figures present no signal of a reversal of the upward development, OCHA mentioned.
There have been 599 main assaults affecting assist staff final yr, a pointy enhance from the 420 in 2023, the database’s figures present. The assaults in 2024 additionally wounded 308 assist staff and noticed 125 kidnapped and 45 detained.
There have been 245 main assaults previously seven plus months, and 265 assist staff have been killed, based on the database.
Practically 400 humanitarian assist staff have been killed final yr.
Kevin S. Vineys/AP
conceal caption
toggle caption
Kevin S. Vineys/AP
One of many deadliest and most horrifying assaults this yr happened within the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah when Israeli troops opened hearth earlier than daybreak on March 23, killing 15 medics and emergency responders in clearly marked automobiles. Troops bulldozed over the our bodies together with their mangled automobiles, burying them in a mass grave. U.N. and rescue staff have been solely capable of attain the location every week later.
“Even one assault towards a humanitarian colleague is an assault on all of us and on the individuals we serve,” the U.N.’s Fletcher mentioned. “Violence towards assist staff is just not inevitable. It should finish.”
In line with the database, violence towards assist staff elevated in 21 nations in 2024 in contrast with the earlier yr, with authorities forces and associates the most typical perpetrators.
The best variety of main assaults final yr have been within the Palestinian territories with 194, adopted by Sudan with 64, South Sudan with 47, Nigeria with 31 and Congo with 27, the database reported.
As for killings, Sudan, the place civil struggle remains to be raging, was second to Gaza and the West Financial institution with 60 assist staff shedding their lives in 2024. That was greater than double the 25 assist employee deaths in 2023.
Lebanon, the place Israel and Hezbollah militants fought a struggle final yr, noticed 20 assist staff killed in contrast with none in 2023. Ethiopia and Syria every had 14 killings, about double the quantity in 2023, and Ukraine had 13 assist staff killed in 2024, up from 6 in 2023, based on the database.
