UN humanitarians and partners on Tuesday expressed deep shock at the killing of 15 colleagues on duty in southern Gaza by Israeli forces whose remains were recovered on Sunday from a shallow grave after a week-long rescue operation, noting that one worker is still missing.
“This is a huge blow to us…These people were shot,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk issued a statement on Monday condemning the Israeli military’s attack, calling for an independent, prompt and thorough investigation into the apparently systematic killings.
“Normally we are not at a loss for words, and we are spokespeople, but sometimes we have difficulty finding them. This is one of those cases,” he told journalists in Geneva, referring to video footage taken near Tal-As-Sultan by an OCHA rescue party showing a crushed UN vehicle, ambulances and a fire truck that had been flattened and buried in the sand by the Israeli military.
