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UNRWA says 130 its employees killed in Gaza Strip

According to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, this is "a devastating and endless human tragedy"

GENEVA, December 5. /TASS/. As man as 130 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the current escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in early October, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.

"Among countless civilians, women, children in this war, 130 UNRWA colleagues have also been confirmed killed. No one is spared, a devastating and endless human tragedy," he wrote on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas 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. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.