Killing of aid workers surges to record high during Gaza war, UN says

Aid worker killings rose nearly a third to almost 400 last year, the most deadly year since records began in 1997, and the conflict in Gaza is continuing to cause high death rates for humanitarian staff in 2025, U.N. and other data showed.

In 2024, 383 aid workers were killed, nearly half of them in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, the U.N. said on Tuesday, citing a database.

"Attacks on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy," said Tom Fletcher, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in a statement.

So far this year, 265 aid workers have been killed, according to provisional data from the Aid Worker Security Database, a U.S-funded platform that compiles reports on major security incidents affecting aid workers.

Of those, 173 were in Gaza in Israel's near two-year offensive against Hamas militants, launched after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attacks by Hamas-led militants, the provisional data showed.

This year, 36 aid workers have so far been killed in Sudan and three in Ukraine, the database showed.

In one incident in Gaza that drew international condemnation, 15 emergency and aid workers were killed by Israeli fire in three separate shootings in March, before being buried in a shallow grave.

Israel's military said in April that the incidents resulted from an "operational misunderstanding" and a "breach of orders". There had been "several professional failures" and a commander would be dismissed, it said.

Aid workers enjoy protection under international humanitarian law but experts cite few precedents for such cases going to trial, with concerns about ensuring future access for aid groups and difficulty proving intent cited as impediments.

"It is catastrophic, and the trend is going in right the opposite direction of what it should," said Jens Laerke, U.N. humanitarian office spokesperson.