An employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was killed during an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank, where raids have intensified since last month.
UNRWA identified the employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation worker. The agency reported that he was shot on the roof of his home by a sniper in the Faraa refugee camp. Jawwad’s death added to the fatalities of six other UNRWA employees who, according to the UN, were killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday during a strike on a school that had been converted into a shelter.
The killing represented the highest number of casualties from a single incident for the agency, according to UNRWA. Despite the agency having more than 30,000 employees in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere, the agency reported that the death of its employee was the first in more than a decade.
On Friday, mourners carried Jawwad’s body through the streets of Faraa with his blue UN vest draped over the Palestinian flag he wore. As a result of the Israeli attack, dozens of Palestinians were killed, with several more dying since Wednesday. In Tubas, funerals were also held for Palestinians who lost their lives in an airstrike. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the military left Tubas on Thursday evening.
The Israel Defence Forces had “conducted a 48-hour counter-terrorism operation” in the areas of Tubas, Tamun and Faraa – northeast of Nablus – killing “five armed terrorists” in an air strike, according to a military statement. Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said:
“During an IDF counterterrorism operation in the Far’a area, which was characterized by violence that included shooting and the hurling of explosive devices at the security forces, a terrorist was identified hurling explosive devices that posed a threat to the forces operating in the area. IDF troops opened fire toward him to remove said threat, and he was killed.” He added that “the terrorist was known to Israeli security forces and he had been complicit in additional terrorist activities.”
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stated that the army would deploy all its might to strike at Palestinian militants in the West Bank. He said that he had ordered the military to carry out airstrikes “wherever necessary” in order to avoid endangering soldiers.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has intensified deadly raids in the area since the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October, which provoked the war in Gaza. Despite this, large-scale raids were escalated at the end of August.
