The UN company for Palestinian refugees mentioned Friday certainly one of its staff was killed throughout an Israeli operation within the occupied West Financial institution, the place raids have escalated since final month.
Israel’s navy known as the UN employee a “terrorist” who posed a risk to troops.
The United Nations company, UNRWA, mentioned the worker was its first to be killed within the Palestinian territory in additional than a decade.
However he’s amongst dozens of Palestinians killed throughout the large-scale Israeli operation which started days in the past and is ongoing, with a number of extra Palestinians useless since Wednesday.
UNRWA recognized the worker as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who labored as a sanitation labourer. It mentioned he was “shot and killed on the roof of his dwelling by a sniper” in Faraa refugee camp.
A navy spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, mentioned on social media platform X that in an operation in Faraa “a terrorist was recognized hurling explosive gadgets that posed a risk” to forces, main troops to open fireplace to take away the risk.
It was later “found he’s additionally an UNRWA worker,” Shoshani mentioned.
Jawwad’s dying is along with these of six different UNRWA staffers the UN mentioned had been killed within the Gaza Strip on Wednesday throughout a strike on a shool-turned-shelter. It was the very best single incident toll for the company, UNRWA mentioned.
Mourners on Friday carried Jawwad’s physique by way of the streets of Faraa, together with his blue UN vest resting atop the Palestinian flag that lined him.
In close by Tubas, funerals additionally happened for different Palestinians, who had been killed by an air strike.
A navy assertion on Friday mentioned Israeli forces had “performed a 48-hour counter-terrorism operation” within the areas of Tubas, Tamun and Faraa — northeast of Nablus — wherein an air strike killed “5 armed terrorists”.
UNRWA has greater than 30,000 staff within the Palestinian territories and elsewhere. Israel has beforehand accused it of using “greater than 400 terrorists” in Gaza.
Violence within the West Financial institution had already soared alongside the practically 12-month-old battle within the Gaza Strip however in late August Israel started its large-scale raids.
Main Israeli operations within the West Financial institution are generally occurring “at a scale not witnessed within the final 20 years,” the United Nations human rights chief mentioned this week.
The official Palestinian information company Wafa mentioned the navy withdrew from Tubas on Thursday night, permitting the funerals there to go forward, after the air strike which the Palestinian Pink Crescent mentioned killed the lads on Wednesday.
“I awakened within the morning to the sound of an explosion,” Ahmed Sawafta, father of one of many useless males, instructed AFP.
Osaid Kharaz, who recognized himself as a Hamas activist, instructed AFP on the funeral in Tubas that Israel “is making an attempt to impose a brand new actuality and undermine the favored assist for the resistance (to Israeli occupation) within the West Financial institution.”
– ‘Full power’ –
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant introduced on September 4 that the navy would use its “full power” to strike Palestinian militants within the West Financial institution.
He mentioned he had ordered the navy to hold out air strikes “wherever mandatory” as a way to “keep away from endangering troopers”.
Days later, the European Union’s high diplomat Josep Borrell mentioned Israel aimed “to show the West Financial institution into a brand new Gaza.”
Israeli forces this week additionally carried out operations across the northern West Financial institution metropolis of Tulkarem.
A navy assertion on Friday reported 4 deaths “within the areas of Tulkarem and Nur Shams”.
It mentioned “three of the terrorists had been eradicated in an aerial strike on Wednesday,” whereas the fourth was killed “throughout close-quarters fight”.
The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad mentioned that the strike killed three of its fighters.
Israel has occupied the West Financial institution since 1967 and has ramped up lethal raids within the territory since Hamas’s October 7 assault on southern Israel sparked the battle in Gaza.
In line with the Palestinian well being ministry, no less than 679 Palestinians have been killed within the West Financial institution by the Israeli navy or settlers since October 7.
Not less than 24 Israelis, together with safety forces, have been killed in Palestinian assaults or throughout Israeli navy operations within the territory throughout the identical interval, in line with Israeli officers.
