An aid worker with Save the Children was killed by an Israeli strike on Khan Younis on Saturday, making him the second staff member of the organisation to die in Gaza.
Ahmed Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi, 39, was killed when he was returning home to his wife and three-year-old daughter from the mosque, a statement by the aid group said.
His killing was strongly condemned by the organisation which demanded an investigation and accountability for the attack on its aid workers.
“Ahmed’s killing signifies that there is no safe place in Gaza for civilians, let alone for aid workers,” Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children told The New Arab.
“We are continuing to see civilians killed every single day in Gaza. There is no place in Gaza that offers respite to civilians,” Saieh said.
Al-Qadi had been working with the NGO since May, Saieh said, adding that his colleagues would remember him as “always smiling, always determined to help others”.
“He had immense pride for his daughter, and he was always around to brighten other people’s days, even in the darkest of times in Gaza,” Saieh said.
Al-Qadi also shared with his colleagues a dream of wanting to rebuild his home after it was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike this past year.
The first aid worker for the group to die in Gaza was Sameh Ewaida, who was killed in December 2023.
An Israeli strike on a residential building killed him alongside his entire immediate family as well as members of his extended family.
“This is a horrific pattern of attacks on civilians that we have not seen slow down at all in the last year,” Saieh told TNA.
“What we have seen in the last year is a lack of accountability for perpetrators of violence and perpetrators of grave violations against children and a lack of accountability for any apparent violations of international humanitarian law,” Saieh said.
“This needs to stop.”
At least 17 aid workers have been killed in separate attacks in Gaza since Saturday, including Palestinian chef Mahmoud Almadhoun, who co-founded Gaza Soup Kitchen, who was killed in a drone strike while visiting Kamal Adwan Hospital.
US-based aid organisation World Central Kitchen paused operations in the strip after an Israeli airstrike targeted one of its vehicles, killing three workers and at least two others in Khan Younis.