The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on Friday the death of one of its employees, “killed on the roof of his house by a sniper” during an Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank.
Sofiane Jaber Abed Jawwad was killed on the night of Thursday to Friday in the Faraa refugee camp, the UN agency wrote in a statement, adding that “This is the first time that an UNRWA employee has been killed in the West Bank in more than ten years”. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. According to UNRWA, Abed Jawwad was “road worker”married and father of five children. He was buried on Friday, according to an AFP journalist present at the funeral.
“Anti-terrorist operation”
Asked by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately react to the announcement of UNRWA. Earlier, it had published a statement indicating that its forces had “carried out a 48-hour anti-terrorist operation” in the areas of Toubas, Tamoun and Faraa, killing “five armed terrorists” in an airstrike and a sixth in “fire exchanges” with “a terrorist who threw explosive devices”.
The Israeli army launched a major military offensive at the end of August against Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel from the northern West Bank. Several dozen Palestinians, including many members of armed groups, but also civilians, teenagers and the elderly, were killed in this operation, according to Palestinian sources. According to UNRWA, more than 220 of its employees have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war triggered by the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.
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