News - Middle East: More than 400 humanitarian organizations have written to the UN General Assembly to call for protecting civilians and aid workers as Israel continues its relentless air and artillery strikes against Palestinians across the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a joint letter addressed to the UNGA, at least 413 humanitarian and aid agencies wrote that the civilians and aid workers had become the principal victims in Gaza and other active conflicts that persist around the world.

“The brutal hostilities we are seeing in multiple conflicts around the world have exposed a terrible truth: We are living in an era of impunity,” they wrote. “This status quo is shameful and cannot continue.”

Elsewhere in the letter, they wrote that fatalities among humanitarian workers doubled in 2023 compared with the previous year and that the 2024 fatalities are already “staggering”.

The letter was published by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the highest-level humanitarian coordination platform of the UN System.

The death toll from more than 10 months of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza has already surpassed the grim milestone of 40,000. The majority of those killed in Israeli strikes are innocent women and children.

The Gaza Civil Defense says it has lost dozens of its employees ever since the Israeli military launched its relentless aerial and ground offensives across the besieged coastal terror in early October last year.

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) said earlier this month one of its Palestinian aid workers had been killed in Gaza, marking another loss for the organization four months after an Israeli airstrike killed seven of its team members.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says the death toll exacted on the agency’s staff since the onset of the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza amounts to the largest in the world body’s history.

At least 207 UNRWA employees have been killed since the start of the Israeli military aggression in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel has also repeatedly attacked Gaza's schools, hospitals universities, and civilian infrastructure.

UN special rapporteur slams US for disrespecting Palestinian lives

Separately, in a post on Monday, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories strongly denounced a recent White House statement that focused on Israel’s security as a reason to end the war on Gaza. 

“40,000 ascertained casualties, yet the focus remains on Israel’s security, whatever that implies,” Francesca Albanese wrote on X, demanding an immediate ceasefire. “The disrespect for Palestinian life is disconcerting.”

Rights advocates have condemned US President Joe Biden and other senior officials for denying Palestinian suffering.

During his ninth trip to the region, since the war began in October, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said now is "probably the best, maybe the last opportunity" to secure a captives' release deal in Gaza. He made no mention of the Palestinian death toll. 

Biden has vowed to continue providing “ironclad” support for the Israeli regime as the latter presses on with its Washington-backed genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.

Since the onset of the regime aggression in October, Washington has provided Israel with thousands of tons of lethal military aid. It has also struck down several United Nations Security Council resolutions that have called for the implementation of an immediate ceasefire in the brutal military onslaught.

Source: Press TV