A record 383 aid workers were killed in global hotspots in 2024, nearly half in Gaza, UN says

A record 383 aid workers were killed in global hotspots in 2024, nearly half of them in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas, the U.N. humanitarian office said yesterday on the annual day honoring the thousands of people who step into crises to help others.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said the record number of killings must be a wake-up call to protect civilians caught in conflict and all those trying to help them.

“Attacks on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy,” Fletcher said in a statement on World Humanitarian Day.

The Aid Worker Security Database, which has compiled reports since 1997, said the number of killings rose from 293 in 2023 to 383 in 2024, including more than 180 in Gaza.

Most of the aid workers killed were national staffers serving their communities who were attacked while on the job or in their homes, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA.

This year, the figures show no sign of a reversal of the upward trend, OCHA said.