Palestinian UN aid worker dies in Gaza vehicle strike, UNRWA confirms

223 UNRWA staff have been killed, and two-thirds of the agency’s facilities in Gaza have been destroyed

An UNRWA employee was killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza Wednesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said, the latest aid worker death in the war-torn territory.

"I can confirm that an UNRWA car was hit. One UNRWA colleague was killed," UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP.

An AFP photographer said the strike in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis early on Wednesday killed two people in all.

At least 223 UNRWA staff have been killed and two-thirds of the agency's facilities in Gaza damaged or destroyed since the war erupted early last year, its head, Philippe Lazzarini, said last month.

Many Gazans displaced by the fighting have sought shelter in UNRWA facilities including schools. Israel has conducted strikes on several of these schools-turned-shelter, accusing Hamas of using them as command centers -- a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.

Wednesday's strike came as Israel moves to curb UNRWA's activities, with the foreign affairs and defence committee of Israel's parliament approving two bills earlier this month essentially aimed at ending the agency's activity and privileges in Israel.

One bill seeks to prevent UNRWA from operating any institution or providing any services or activity in Israel. The second bill says that UNRWA workers will not enjoy the immunity or special rights enjoyed by other UN workers in Israel.

UNRWA and the wider humanitarian response to Israel's military operations in Gaza have been a bone of contention in the conflict, with Israeli authorities accused of restricting aid flows.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,792 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the UN considers reliable.

The agency saw funding cuts earlier this year after Israel accused a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas.

An internal probe published in August found that nine employees "may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October".

UNRWA was created in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.