UNRWA says six staffers killed in two Gaza airstrikes, Guterres condemns incident

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said six staffers were killed in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, marking what it said was the highest death toll among its staff in a single incident.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the alleged killing of the six UNRWA workers in the Gaza Strip by IDF forces, saying, "What is happening there is completely unacceptable. A school that became a shelter for about 12 thousand people was hit again today by Israeli airstrikes.".

Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, attacked Guterres in a post on X/Twitter, writing, "What is 'unacceptable' is the fact you refuse to recognize reality and continue to distort it."

What is "unacceptable,” @antonioguterres, is the fact you refuse to recognize reality and continue to distort it. Terrorists operating out of civilian buildings previously used by @UNRWA are not "innocent." It is unconscionable that the UN continues to condemn Israel in its… https://t.co/ThWltXRqFY

— Danny Danon דני דנון (@dannydanon) September 12, 2024

Calling for an investigation 

Danon went on to write that Guterres should investigate the background of the employees killed, referencing the multiple UN staffers who had previously been let go due to involvement with terror organizations.

"Israel will continue its just war against terrorism." Danon wrote, "The solution is not a ceasefire, but the release of all hostages still held in Gaza and the elimination of Hamas."

Criticism of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza is a common theme for Guterres. A lack of accountability for the killing of United Nations staff and humanitarian aid workers in the Gaza Strip is "totally unacceptable," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday.

Guterres also said that establishing a UN peacekeeping force would not be the "best solution" for Haiti, where armed gangs have taken over much of the capital and expanded to surrounding areas, fueling a humanitarian crisis with mass displacements, sexual violence, and widespread hunger.

Ahead of the annual meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly later this month, Guterres summed up the past year as "very tough, very difficult." 

It has been dominated by the war in Gaza, which began just two weeks after leaders left New York following last year's assembly when Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages in a cross-border rampage into Israel.

Describing Israel's retaliation against Hamas in Gaza - where local health officials say some 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began - Guterres said there have been "very dramatic violations of the international humanitarian law and the total absence of an effective protection of civilians."