MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said the number of its staff killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to 199 since the beginning of the current conflict.
"199 UNRWA colleagues have been killed in Gaza since the war began," the organization said in a statement.
UNRWA added that some 1,100 staff continue to serve in hospitals and health clinics in the Palestinian enclave.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel and breached Gaza's border fence, attacking civilian neighborhoods and military bases. Nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed during the incident and some 240 others were abducted and taken to Gaza.
Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip before launching a ground incursion into the territory. Gaza's health ministry reports that the death toll from the Israeli offensive has passed 39,000, with more than 90,000 others injured.
A study in the British medical journal The Lancets projects the number of dead will reach 186,000 as Gazans endure famine and the destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure. Recently the World Health Organization warned of epidemics of hepatitis and polio after reports first emerged of the spread of disease in the enclave late last year.