JERUSALEM: Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Israel had repeatedly targeted known aid worker locations in Gaza, even after their coordinates were provided to Israeli authorities to ensure their protection.
The rights watchdog said that it had identified eight cases where aid convoys and premises were targeted, killing at least 15 people, including two children.
They are among more than 250 aid workers who have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted more than seven months ago, according to UN figures.
In all eight cases, the organizations had provided the coordinates to Israeli authorities, HRW said.
This reveals “fundamental flaws with the so-called deconfliction system, meant to protect aid workers and allow them to safely deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza,” it said.
“On one hand, Israel is blocking access to critical lifesaving humanitarian provisions and on the other, attacking convoys that are delivering some of the small amount that they are allowing in,” Belkis Wille, HRW’s associate crisis, conflict and arms director, said in Tuesday’s statement.
HRW highlighted the case of the World Central Kitchen, a US-based charity who saw seven of its aid workers killed by an Israeli strike on their convoy on April 1.
This was not an isolated “mistake,” HRW said, pointing to the other seven cases it had identified where GPS coordinates of aid convoys and premises had been sent to Israeli authorities, only to see them attacked by Israeli forces “without any warning.”

GAZA STRIP: The World Health Organization voiced full confidence in Gaza Ministry of Health death toll figures on Tuesday, saying they were actually getting closer to confirming the scale of losses after Israel questioned a change in the numbers.
Gaza’s Health Ministry last week updated its breakdown of the total fatalities of around 35,000 since Oct. 7, saying that about 25,000 of those have so far been fully identified, of whom more than half were women and children.
This sparked allegations from Israel of inaccuracy since Palestinian authorities had previously estimated that more than 70 percent of those killed were women and children.
UN agencies have republished the Palestinian figures, which have since risen above 35,000 dead, citing the source.
“Nothing wrong with the data, the overall data (more than 35,000) are still the same,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a Geneva press briefing. “The fact we now have 25,000 identified people is a step forward,” he added.
Based on his own extrapolation of the latest Palestinian data, he said that around 60 percent of victims were women and children, but many bodies buried beneath rubble were likely to fall into these categories when they were eventually identified.
He added that it was “normal” for death tolls to shift in conflicts.
“We’re basically talking about 35,000 people who are dead, and really every life matters, doesn’t it?” Liz Throssel, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said at the same briefing. “And we know that many and many of those are women and children and there are thousands missing under the rubble.”