GENEVA (AP) — 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 has been 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.
“These numbers will send shockwaves 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.
Some 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.
OCHA said a total of 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 some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.
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. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
FILE- Medics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and volunteers at the National Disaster Response Team "NDRT" , participated in a drill during a graduation ceremony of medics, in Mughraqa, central Gaza Strip, Sept. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Adel Hana), File)
FILE - A Red Cross vehicle carrying Israeli hostages drives by at the Gaza Strip crossing into Egypt in Rafah on Nov. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's parliament canceled a session on Friday as security was tightened after Russia deployed a new ballistic missile that threatens to escalate the nearly three-year war.
Russian troops also struck Sumy with Shahed drones overnight killing two people and injuring 12 more, the regional administration said Friday morning. The attack targeted a residential district of the city.
Ukraine’s Suspilne media, quoting Sumy regional head Volodymyr Artiukh, said the Russians used Shaheds stuffed with shrapnel elements for the first time in the region. “These weapons are used to destroy people, not to destroy objects,” said Artiukh, according to Suspilne.
Separately, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský arrived on a visit to Kyiv. He posted a photo from Kyiv’s railway station on his X account Friday morning.
“I am interested in how the Ukrainians are coping with the bombings, how Czech projects are working on the ground and how to better target international aid in the coming months. I will discuss all of this here,” Lipavský wrote.
Three Ukrainian lawmakers confirmed that the parliamentary session previously scheduled was canceled due to the ongoing threat of Russian missile attacks targeting government buildings in the city center.
Not only is the parliament closed, “there was also recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and NGOs that remain in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who added this is not the first time such a threat has been received.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office continued to work in compliance with standard security measures, a spokesperson said.
Russia on Thursday fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile in response to Kyiv's use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an address on Thursday.
It struck a missile factory in Dnipro in central Ukraine. Putin warned that U.S. air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile, which he said flies at 10 times the speed of sound and which he called Oreshnik — Russian for hazelnut tree.
The Pentagon confirmed that Russia's missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.
Associated Press journalist Samya Kullab contributed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, gives an award to Russian serviceman of the Battlegroup North in an undisclosed location. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, a Russian engineer troops serviceman operates at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service no Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, Russian T90M Proryv tank fires towards Ukrainian positions at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
