Israel killed two workers for the UN Refugee Agency, the agency has said, in bombardments across Lebanon on Monday that resulted in the deadliest single day of attacks in the country in decades.
The UN Human High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office announced that workers Dina Darwiche and Ali Basma, who worked in UN offices in eastern and southern Lebanon, respectively, were killed. The agency said that Israel killed Darwiche and son in her home. Her husband and their other child were injured and are in the hospital.
“UNHCR is outraged by the killing of our colleagues, and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones,” the agency said in a statement.
“Over 550 people were killed in Lebanon in one day yesterday,” the agency continued. “The protection of civilians is a must, and we reiterate the Secretary-General’s call for urgent de-escalation, and calls on all parties to protect civilians, including aid workers, in line with obligations under international humanitarian law.”
The UN workers are among several UN workers who Israel has killed or wounded in Lebanon since October 7. This week, after months of raining down bombs on Lebanon and shooting down limited strikes back from Hezbollah forces, Israel majorly escalated its assault on the country, pledging a “new phase” of its slaughter of its neighbors.
The Lebanon Health Ministry reported that, on Monday alone, 558 people were killed and 1,835 people injured. At least 50 of those killed by the Israeli strikes were children.
Israel appears to be using many of the same tactics it’s used in its Gaza genocide in Lebanon. Humanitarian groups have decried Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign in Gaza, in which Israel has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, and likely far, far more, over the past year.
Due to Israel’s campaign of extermination, Gaza has become the most dangerous place on earth for humanitarian workers — the targeting of whom is a war crime. Israel has killed nearly 300 aid workers in Gaza, including 224 UN workers, since October.
With Israel focusing its slaughter now on Lebanon, there may be many more killings of aid workers to come. The Israeli military has a long history of targeting and sabotaging aid efforts, as part of their strategy of depriving Palestinians of basic needs like food and water and deepening Palsetinians’ dependency on the settler-colonialist Israeli government.
One of those tactics is Israel’s use of evacuation orders to forcibly displace people. On Monday, Israel sent out tens of thousands of orders to Lebanese people in civilian areas. Though the orders were supposedly sent out to allow families time to flee before Israel bombed their homes, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor pointed out that the air raids often came just after the orders were issued, giving people no time to escape.
“In both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, the Israeli army deliberately denies civilians enough time to escape the areas being bombed, offering them no real protection from the dangers arising from military operations,” the group wrote.
Euro-Med Monitor pointed out that Israel gave inhabitants of the Beqaa Valley — an area spanning over 4,400 square kilometers, or over 1,700 square miles — just two hours to evacuate. But, the group said, it would take many people there at least three hours just to flee the areas being evacuated, even leaving aside things like gathering children from school or packing up basic needs like clothes and food.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has announced that it is opening shelters in schools for forcibly displaced people in Lebanon. These shelters are currently housing 500 displaced people, the agency reported.
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