UN agency says Rafah aid centre hit by Israel, killing staff member

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said one staff member was killed and 22 others injured when Israeli forces hit a food distribution centre in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Palestinian territory said that five people in total were killed in the Israeli strike on Wednesday.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency, said Gaza was facing "famine conditions" in areas and that Israel had attacked "one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centres in the Gaza Strip."

"Every day, we share the coordinates of all our facilities across the Gaza Strip with parties to the conflict. The Israeli Army received the coordinates including of this facility yesterday," Lazzarini said in a statement.

An Israeli army spokesman said the incident was being investigated.

The UNRWA facility in Gaza's southernmost city was said to serve as a warehouse for supplies and a distribution hub.

UNRWA said 165 team members have been killed while working during the war.

"Since this war began, attacks against UN facilities, convoys and personnel have become commonplace in blatant disregard to international humanitarian law. I am calling once again for an independent inquiry into these violations and the need for accountability," Lazzarini said.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, 31,272 people have been killed and more than 73,000 others injured in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war more than five months ago. More than two-thirds of these are women and children.

The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out by militants from the Palestinian organization Hamas and other extremist groups in Israel near the Gaza border on October 7 in which more than 1,200 people were killed and around 240 others taken hostage.

Rafah has been the war's main flashpoint for weeks.

Israel is planning a large-scale military offensive there despite warnings from world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, that such an action would deepen the catastrophe for civilians.

According to estimates, 1.5 million Palestinians have fled from the fighting in other areas of the Gaza Strip and are currently seeking shelter in cramped conditions in Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

The Israeli army said on Wednesday evening that a commander from the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in Rafah had been killed.

On the basis of intelligence information, a fighter jet had "precisely attacked and eliminated the terrorist in the Hamas operations unit in the Rafah area," a military statement said.

Muhammad Abu Hasna "was a combat support operative in Hamas' military wing. He was also involved in taking control of humanitarian aid and distributing it to Hamas terrorists," the Israeli military said.

Hasna had coordinated the activities of various Hamas units, it said, adding that he was also responsible for an operations centre that relayed information about Israeli army positions to help with Hamas attacks.

Elsewhere, Qatar, engaged in mediation between Israel and Hamas, hopes a truce deal will be reached in the Gaza war before the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of Ramadan next month.

Eid al-Fitr, expected to start on April 10, marks the end of the lunar Islamic fasting month of Ramadan that began earlier this week.

Spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry Majed al-Ansari said the Gulf country is seeking to push both sides to reach an agreement before Eid.

"Qatari efforts continue to halt fighting in Gaza despite the complexity of the situation and the deteriorating humanitarian scene," he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Qatar, a major ally of Hamas, has been trying to negotiate a truce deal in the ongoing conflict for weeks, together with delegations from the US and Egypt.

Initially, negotiators were hopeful that an agreement could be reached before the start of Ramadan, but talks have stalled.

One of the main points of contention between Israel and Hamas is the duration of a ceasefire. Hamas is demanding an indefinite ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. Israel rejects this.

In November, the oil-rich emirate helped broker a temporary ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas that also facilitated hostage-for-prisoner swaps.