Zeynep ConkarThey arrive in the middle of chaos, wearing vests marked with red crosses, red crescents, or the blue letters of the UN. Once, those emblems meant protection. Today, they are increasingly becoming the targets,
In the past year alone, a record number of 383 humanitarian workers were killed in 20 countries, many in deliberate attacks.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described the staggering rise in the attacks as “a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy”.
With Gaza accounting for more than half of the aid workers killed in 2024, Israel has emerged as the biggest culprit.
Since October 2023, more than 508 humanitarian personnel have been killed in Gaza, including 346 UN staff and 51 from the Palestine Red Crescent. Ambulances have been bombed, food distribution points shelled, and convoys fired upon.
Alper Kucuk, Turkish Red Crescent Director-General of International Affairs and Migration, says that Palestine is witnessing the most severe humanitarian crisis in recent times.
“Attacks against humanitarian workers have reached an unprecedented level. In just the first six months of 2025, 168 aid workers were killed; 126 of them were in Gaza,” Kucuk tells TRT World.
Of the 2.1 million civilians in the besieged enclave, nearly one million face “emergency” hunger, and 470,000 are in famine conditions. Over 100 children have died from hunger, with more than 1,000 people having died while waiting in food lines, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“This horrific picture is the foreseeable result of preventing humanitarian aid from entering. On 2 March 2025, all humanitarian crossings into Gaza were closed and as of 19 May, only irregular and insufficient aid was allowed. Thus, civilians’ means of survival were systematically eliminated,” Kucuk explains.
Aid work has always carried risk, but in recent years, that risk has escalated to levels that have never been seen before, according to Rabih Torbay, Project HOPE’s President & CEO.
Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is an international global health and humanitarian aid non-governmental organisation, operating in disasters and health crises, infectious diseases, maternal, neonatal, and child health.
“What’s different now is the increased politicisation of aid and the erosion of respect for international norms and principles, including International Humanitarian Law,” Torbay tells TRT World.
“The killing of aid workers, especially via aerial bombardment, is too often justified as “collateral damage,” backed by disinformation suggesting they are aligned with one side or another,” he adds.
Protections on paper
International humanitarian law (IHL), particularly the Geneva Conventions, grants aid workers protected status. UN staff, NGOs, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent are among this category of protected persons and must not be targeted by any party to a conflict.
Attacking aid workers is not only a violation of international law but could also constitute a war crime, particularly when part of a systematic pattern, evident in the repeated targeting of humanitarian personnel by Israeli forces.
The lack of adherence to IHL has created an environment of impunity, putting aid workers at increasing risk, according to Torbay.
“The daily politicisation and weaponisation of aid, what we’re seeing with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) who rely on armed contractors in coordination with the IDF (Israeli army), is a dangerous departure from IHL’s mandate that aid be rooted in humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” Torbay says.
“Despite being protected under international law, there is a complete lack of accountability that has eroded the very concept of protection for humanitarian personnel,” he adds.
Kucuk offers a similar view: “Moreover, the alternative distribution system implemented through the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ has surrendered impartial and principled humanitarian aid to political and military interests.”
Such practices contribute to a broader culture of impunity.
Investigations into violations rarely begin, or drag on for years, teaching perpetrators that there is no cost for breaking the rules.
Meanwhile, convoys sit stalled at borders for months, awaiting approval that may never come.
Evidence from front lines
The Aid Worker Security Database, which has compiled reports since 1997, shows that violence against aid workers rose in 21 countries in 2024 compared with the previous year, with government forces and their affiliates being the most frequent perpetrators.
The occupied Palestinian territories saw the highest number of major attacks last year, totalling 194, followed by Sudan (64), South Sudan (47), Nigeria (31), and Congo (27).
In Sudan, where civil war continues, 60 aid workers were killed in 2024, more than double the 25 deaths recorded in 2023, making it second only to Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Lebanon, affected by last year’s war between Israel and Iran, recorded 20 aid worker deaths, up from zero in 2023.
Ethiopia and Syria each had 14 aid workers killed, roughly double the previous year, while Ukraine reported 13 deaths in 2024, compared with six in 2023.
Since the Russia-Ukraine war began, more than 200 ambulances have been destroyed, often under the pretext of military use. “In reality, health workers were targeted as part of a strategy of attrition,” Torbay says.
On August 8, a medical vehicle marked with red crosses was struck by a drone, killing a physician supported by Project HOPE and injuring three others.
In another case in September, the ICRC confirmed that three of its staff were killed and two were injured when shelling struck a planned aid distribution in Donetsk.
For those working on the ground, the risks are constant.
Stanislav Vierbii, an aid worker based in Ukraine, recalls a powerful explosion in Borova in spring 2024.
“In the first seconds, it seemed we’d been hit directly; everyone ran toward the shelter, crouching. Thanks to a safety briefing, everyone knew where it was,” Vierbii tells TRT World.
The blast struck a residential building. “The incident,” he says, “is etched in my memory forever.”
Security coordinator Alex Kucher says his team once narrowly avoided a kamikaze drone strike on a water delivery truck in Nikopol, after which they shifted operations to early mornings.
In another incident, a colleague in Kherson survived a drone strike by sheltering in place, though his car was destroyed. “In the humanitarian world, we go where help is needed most, often into volatile, high-risk environments,” Kucher tells TRT World.
In Gaza, too, Project HOPE aid workers were targeted. An air strike outside the clinic in Deir al Balah killed 16 people, including 10 children waiting for the doors to open.
Despite it all, aid work continues. World Humanitarian Day, marked every August 19, honours that persistence. But remembrance is not enough.
Without independent investigations, consequences for perpetrators, and real political pressure from states that claim to defend humanitarian principles, the deaths will keep climbing.
“These are people who help the wounded, support those in need, and save lives, afterall. But who will protect them?” Kucuk adds.
