By Laith Al-Jnaidi
AMMAN, Jordan (AA) - Jordan condemned the Israeli targeting of a UN vehicle in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Monday that left a local UN employee killed and a Jordanian worker injured.
In a statement, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry called "for protecting UN and aid workers who play a major humanitarian role for the Palestinians in light of the unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip."
The statement held "Israel, as the occupying power, responsible for this attack as a result of its ongoing war on Gaza."
It added that it is following up with the UN "on the medical situation of the Jordanian citizen who was injured in this attack and securing her exit from the (Gaza) Strip."
Earlier on Monday, a medical source told Anadolu that a Palestinian driver with the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) was killed and a foreign employee was injured in an Israeli attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Since Oct. 7, when Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, at least 171 UN staff have been killed, according to figures from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Nearly 35,100 Palestinians have been killed and over 78,800 others injured in a brutal Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip since an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in the enclave.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar