UN agency reports loss of 142 employees in Gaza

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) reported the death of 142 of its staffers during Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. “Our teams are doing the impossible to help people in need. We mourn the loss of more UNRWA colleagues killed in Gaza, now 142, the majority with their families,” the UN Palestinian refugee agency wrote on X (former Twitter).

Tensions escalated again in the Middle East on October 7 after Gaza Strip-based Hamas militants launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.