United Nations (UN) flags were displayed at halfmast on the institution’s buildings across Asia this Monday (13), in memory of colleagues killed in the war between Israel and Hamas. At the same time, local officials observed a minute of silence.
The blueandwhite UN flag was lowered at 9:30 a.m. local time in Bangkok, Tokyo and Beijing, a day after the organization announced “a significant number of dead and injured in the bombing” of the United Nations Development Program headquarters ( UNDP). ), in Gaza.
Images published this Sunday (12) showed a crater in the middle of the playground of a school run by the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
On Friday (10), the agency announced that more than 100 personnel had died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
On October 7, the Islamist movement Hamas launched a surprise attack against southern Israel, firing thousands of rockets and invading armed militiamen, killing more than 1,200 people and holding more than two hundred hostage.
In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, bombing several of the group’s infrastructure in Gaza and imposing a total siege on the territory, cutting off water, fuel and electricity supplies.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, Israeli air, land and sea bombings have caused at least 11,100 casualties in the Gaza Strip over five weeks, most of them civilians.
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