New York, New York, August 19, 2025 —  Detrimental slashing of aid budgets from global powers including the USA and UK this year has made humanitarian aid delivery harder than ever. Frontline workers are doing everything in their power to deliver humanitarian aid to those who need it most, while confronting extraordinary threats to their own lives and wellbeing.

Every day, aid and health workers risk their lives to care for people living under relentless bombardment and cut off from assistance. International Humanitarian Law explicitly protects humanitarian and medical personnel, and attacks on them are prohibited.

Despite this, more than 3,200 aid workers - 92% of whom were local staff - have been killed since records began. This is evidence of the steep price humanitarian workers worldwide have pay to reach people in crisis. Almost a fifth of those killed were Palestinian humanitarian workers responding to the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Since October 2023 more than 500 aid workers, including staff from organisations the IRC partners with on the ground in Gaza, have been killed, alongside at least 1,500 health workers. Sources from 2025 indicate at least 70 aid workers were killed in the first six months of this year alone. This  means that the occupied Palestinian territory will surpass Afghanistan as the context with the highest number of killings on record. 

Mohammed Mansour, IRC Senior Nutrition Manager in occupied Palestinian territory, said,

“Being an aid worker in Gaza means risking your life every day just to help others survive. There is no safe space—not for us, and not for those we serve.”

Bob Kitchen, IRC Vice President of Emergencies, said,

“The last two years of conflict in Gaza have had unimaginable consequences, not least for the 1.9 million Gazans who remain trapped in the occupied Palestinian territories. Today, we must bring attention to the brave humanitarian workers who risk their lives on a daily basis to provide essential services to those in need.

“If lifesaving assistance is to be delivered, civilians and humanitarian workers must be protected. Governments and all parties to conflict must safeguard the lives of those who commit themselves to helping others. Humanitarian workers are not a target, and those responsible for attacks on them or on humanitarian aid must be held to account.”