GENEVA -- More aid workers, health care staffers, delivery personnel and other humanitarians have been killed in 2024 than in any other single year, the United Nations reported Friday.
Bloodshed in the Middle East is the single biggest cause of the 281 deaths among humanitarians globally this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"Before the year is even over, 2024 has become the deadliest on record for humanitarian personnel worldwide," OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said.
He told reporters in Geneva the figure surpassed the previous record of 280 deaths for the whole of last year.
Humanitarians "are working courageously and selflessly in places like Gaza, Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine and so on. They show the best humanity has to offer, and they are getting killed in return -- in record numbers," he said.
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"These numbers will send shock waves around the humanitarian community, especially on the front lines of the response," he added.
The U.N. said the figures come from the Aid Worker Security Database, a U.S.-funded project run by a Britain-based group called Humanitarian Outcomes.
A total of 268 of the humanitarians killed -- including from non-U.N. organizations like the Red Cross and Red Crescent -- were national staff, while 13 were international staff.
About 230 aid workers have been killed in occupied Palestinian areas, the database showed Friday. It did not break out whether that was Gaza or the West Bank.
Laerke said the threats to aid workers "extend beyond Gaza, with high levels of violence, kidnappings injuries, harassment and arbitrary detention" reported in Afghanistan, Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere.
Israeli airstrikes killed a hospital director at his home in northeastern Lebanon and six others, while at least five paramedics were killed by Israeli strikes in the country's south on Friday, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.
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The United Nations reported heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.
Four Italian peacekeepers were lightly wounded when a rocket hit their base, the U.N. said.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the rockets were likely launched by Hezbollah militants or by affiliated groups Friday, impacting a bunker and a logistics area in the southwest headquarters at Chamaa.
One of the structures that was hit caught fire, and the blaze was swiftly put out by U.N. staff, he said.
In Gaza, Israeli strikes hit Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few hospitals still partially operating in the northernmost part of the territory, wounding nine medical staff and damaging its generator and oxygen systems, the hospital director said Friday.
Hossam Abu Safiya said strikes before dawn Friday hit the entrance of the emergency unit as well as in the hospital courtyard. He said six staff were wounded, including two critically. Friday night, he said an armed drone hit the entrance again, wounding three staffers.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Abu Safiya said the strikes caused damage to the functioning of the generator and disrupted oxygen supplies. The hospital is treating 85 wounded, 14 children in the pediatric ward and four newborns in the neonatal unit, he said.
During the past month, Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit several times, was put under siege and was raided by Israeli troops, who are waging a heavy offensive in the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp and towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
OCHA said 333 humanitarians have been killed since the latest conflict between Israel and the militant Hamas group erupted when the militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.
A full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in September after almost a year of lower-intensity conflict. More than 3,640 people have been killed in Lebanon and 15,350 wounded, the majority following Israel's escalation and ground invasion, the Health Ministry said Friday.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the 13-month-old war has surpassed 44,000, local health officials said Thursday. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
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