UN refugee agency says worker killed by sniper in West Bank

By Mohammad Sio

ISTANBUL (AA) – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said Friday that an employee was killed by a sniper in the northern West Bank.

The worker, a sanitation laborer, was shot on the roof of his home on Thursday.

“An UNRWA sanitation labourer in the northern West Bank was shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper yesterday,” the agency said on X.

“This marks the first time an UNRWA staff member was killed in the West Bank in more than 10 years.”

“UNRWA mourns the death of a colleague killed overnight in El Far’a Camp, in the northern West Bank,” the agency said in a statement.

The statement noted Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad was shot dead on the roof of his home by a sniper early Thursday morning during an overnight Israeli military operation.

The Israeli army on Thursday evening withdrew from the northern West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Tubas, ending days-long military offensives that killed 14 Palestinians.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank amid Israel’s devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,100 victims, mostly women and children, since last Oct. 7.

Over 700 people have since been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.