UNRWA says staffer killed in Israeli West Bank raid

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says one of its employees was killed this week during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, the first such death in more than a decade.

The agency, known as UNRWA, says the employee was “shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper” and that it was “the first time an UNRWA staff member has been killed in the West Bank in more than 10 years.”

The incident took place in the Far’a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the statement says.

It identified the slain employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who “worked as a sanitation laborer” in the camp and “is survived by his wife and five children.”

An Israeli military statement earlier today said troops had “conducted a 48-hour counter-terrorism operation” in the areas of Tubas, Tamun and Far’a, killing “five armed terrorists” in an air strike and a sixth in “exchanges of fire” with “a terrorist that hurled explosive devices.”

The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the UNRWA statement about its staffer.

UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid into Gaza, has been in crisis since Israel accused dozens of its employees of being involved in the October 7 massacres that sparked the war.