The first eight months of 2025 show no sign of a reversal of this disturbing trend, with 265 humanitarian workers killed as of 14 August, according to figures released on World Humanitarian Day.

Attacks on humanitarian workers, assets and operations violate international law and undermine the lifelines that sustain millions of people trapped in war and disaster zones.

“Even one attack against a humanitarian colleague is an attack on all of us and on the people we serve,” said Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA), speaking in Geneva.

At Headquarters in New York City, the UN hosted a commemoration ceremony for the victims of the bombing of the United Nations headquarters its office in Baghdad in 2003, which cost the lives of 22 people. Some of the survivors attended the event.

Protect aid workers

“Humanitarians carry hope where there is despair,” said Mr. Fletcher at the World Humanitarian Day 2025 Commemoration Ceremony in Geneva.

“They bring humanity where there is inhumanity.”

Yet, humanitarian workers are under attack.

In 2024, most of the aid workers killed were national staff serving their communities and were attacked in the line of duty or in their homes.

Since October 2023, 520 aid workers, mostly staff with UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, have been killed in Gaza — the deadliest place for humanitarians for the second year running.

OCHA demanded that Member States protect civilians and aid workers, and hold perpetrators accountable.

Despite the dangers, “humanitarians will not retreat”, said Mr. Fletcher.

Humanitarians in the Middle East

Across the Middle East, civilians, including humanitarian workers, “are being killed, injured, and attacked in shocking numbers,” said the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Syria, Yemen and Lebanon in a joint statement this Tuesday.

Since August 2024, at least 446 humanitarian workers have been killed, wounded, kidnapped or detained in these locations. “The world is failing humanitarian workers and the people they serve,” the statement read.

Renewing their call for the respect of international humanitarian and human right laws, the officials called on the international community to “protect those who protect humanity.”