The WFP team was returning from a mission to Kerem Shalom/ Karam Abu Salem with two WFP armoured vehicles after escorting a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian cargo routed to Gaza’s central area.
Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving towards an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) checkpoint. It sustained at least ten bullets: five on the driver’s side, two on the passenger side and three on other parts of the vehicle. None of the employees onboard were physically harmed.
Though this is not the first security incident to occur during the war it is the first time that a WFP vehicle has been directly shot at near a checkpoint, despite securing the necessary clearances, as per standard protocol.
[…]
Humanitarians are increasingly coming under fire and face a multitude of challenges to deliver life-saving aid in Gaza. Frequent and ongoing evacuation orders continue to uproot both families and food relief operations intended to support them.
I am well aware of roof-knocking, and how it is used as cover to “humanely” destroy housing infrastructure (70%+ of homes damaged or destroyed at this time, and counting), driving people out of their homes. Also note that it often isn’t done, certainly now with tent camps.
And yes, firing a couple of people for a single instance of killing aid workers that got particular international backlash, and not doing anything in all the other cases (in case you aren’t aware, Israel has killed more aid workers in the last 12 months (~250+) than were killed globally, in any other other year we have aid worker casualty records for), is absolutely evidence that this “punishment” was the exception, not the rule.
But don’t take my word for it, take Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan’s (who is American), who’s worked in conflict zones all around the globe with Doctors Without Borders (see NYT link above):
They fired 2 people over 7 aid worker deaths that got international attention. What did they do about the other couple hundred aid worker deaths they caused?
The percentage of aid workers killed corresponds roughly to the death toll among the total population of Gaza. The reason why in absolute numbers so many aid workers have been killed is that there is no other place in the world where there are so many aid workers relative to the general population, in part due to the fact that Palestinians are the only people in the world that have their own refugee agency, which runs many services that would usually be run by the local government, like school and healthcare.
So in other words, despite all the wars and conflicts and genocides going on in the world now and in the recent past, Israel has managed to kill more of the total population of Gaza than other wars and genocides and conflicts have their involved populations, to such an extent that without (according to you) them intentionally trying to kill aid workers, they’ve managed to kill so many civilians as to outnumber all conflicts’ aid worker death tolls combined. That is not the solid defense you think it is.
No. There are far, far more aid workers in Gaza than anywhere else relative to the size of the population. I thought I was pretty clear on that this is the reason. Aid agencies are by far the biggest employers for Palestinians. Now add in just how many aid workers in Gaza in particular moonlight at the Al-Aqsa brigades and you see why when Israel kills a few fighters, it’s not unlikely that they get someone who has a day job as an aid worker. It’s just like with “journalists” who are not just on Hamas payroll, but even imprison hostages in their household.
Well, Israel basically admitted it was like 6 people they identified at UNRWA who were also Hamas, so I’m gonna go with not that many. And Al-Aqsa Brigades are PA, not Hamas.
My mistake, I meant Al-Qassam. Thanks for the correction.