UNRWA worker killed amid Israeli West Bank operation
An employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was killed by a sniper in the West Bank amid ongoing Israeli military operations, the agency said Friday. The death of the employee, Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, comes after six other UNRWA staffers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday during an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday one of its employees was killed during an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, where raids have escalated since last month.
Israel's military called the UN worker a "terrorist" who posed a threat to troops.
The United Nations agency, UNRWA, said the employee was its first to be killed in the Palestinian territory in more than a decade.
But he is among dozens of Palestinians killed during the large-scale Israeli operation which began days ago and is ongoing, with several more Palestinians dead since Wednesday.
UNRWA identified the employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation labourer. It said he was "shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper" in Faraa refugee camp.
A military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, said on social media platform X that during an operation in Faraa "a terrorist was identified hurling explosive devices that posed a threat" to forces, leading troops to open fire to remove the threat.
It was later "discovered he is also an UNRWA employee," Shoshani said.
Jawwad's death is in addition to those of six other UNRWA staffers the UN said were killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday during a strike on a shool-turned-shelter. It was the highest single incident toll for the agency, UNRWA said.
(AFP)
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