Shawdesh desk: A UN group that delivers aid to Gaza said Sunday that a total of 29 of its staffers, about half of them teachers, have died in Israeli strikes in the Gaza war.

“We are in shock and mourning. It is now confirmed that 29 of our colleagues in #Gaza have been killed since October 7,” the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees wrote on X on Sunday morning. “Half of these colleagues were @unrwa teachers.”

“As an Agency, we are devastated. We are grieving with each other and with the families,” the group added, reports New York Post.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — which provides education, health care, social services and other humanitarian aid to Palestinians — noted that at least 12 people have been killed while sheltering in its schools, with another 180 injured.
The group also warned that it is running out of supplies to provide for refugees, with its fuel only set to last for three more days.

“Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance,” the group said.

The aid group fears that if supplies run out, it would spell a humanitarian disaster for the more than half a million people it serves across the Gaza Strip.

Israel has repeatedly declared that it would not allow any fuel to enter Gaza until the estimated 210 hostages held by Hamas are freed.

The embargo on fuel comes after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, on October 7 and unleashing a fierce counterattack from the Jewish country that in turn has killed more than 4,700 Palestinians.

On Saturday, 20 trucks carried food, water and medicine into Israel, and on Sunday, another 17 trucks entered via Egypt to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid, Al Jazeera reported.

“Doctors are telling us that the aid is meant for hospitals in the Gaza Strip which are in dire need of medical supplies,” reporter Khan Younis told the outlet. “No fuel has been reported on these trucks.”

Despite the recent deliveries, aid organizations operating in Gaza have slammed them as “only a drop in the ocean” of what’s needed to serve Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.