World Health Organization Contractor Killed in Gaza by Israeli Fire in Murky Circumstances 
Humanitarian Crises 07/04/2026 •
Friends and colleagues at funeral of Majdi Aslan, a WHO driver, killed after Israel targeted the vehicle as it was driving on a main street in Khan Yunis.

The World Health Organization said it was “investigating” the circumstances around the Israeli shooting of a WHO contractor driving a vehicle in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Monday. Speaking at a UN press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, a WHO spokesperson refused to confirm or deny Israeli military claims that the vehicle had been unmarked when it was targeted by nearby soldiers.  

“WHO is devastated to confirm that a person contracted to provide services to the organization in Gaza was killed yesterday during a security incident,” said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in an X post, on Monday. 

Israel’s UN Mission in Geneva issued a statement saying that an unmarked vehicle had approached  a group of soldiers, who first fired warning shots, and then after it accelerated, shot and killed  the contractor, reportedly the vehicle’s driver. The incident was being investigated by the Israeli army, the statement added. 

Palestinian media reports named the victim as 54-year-old Majdi Aslan. Some reports contended that he was driving a clearly marked vehicle at the time he was shot on Salah-a-Din street a busy street in  eastern Khan Yunis near Israeli troop positions. Others said he was in driving a commercial vehicle while a second WHO staff vehicle accompanied the convoy.

WHO can neither confirm or deny if the vehicle was marked

Speaking at the press briefing WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said he could not confirm or deny the Israeli reports that the vehicle was not carrying standard WHO or UN markings. 

“I have no further information, so I can neither confirm nor deny what the vehicle is. Typically they would be who marked vehicles. But again, I do not have further information at this point,” Lindmeier said.

Following the incident, WHO said it had suspended until further notice  medical evacuation of patients from Gaza via Rafa to Egypt. Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, lies just north of Gaza’s Rafah governorate, which borders Egypt and serves as an important crossing point both for humanitarian supplies and medical evacuations. 

Al Jazeera rendition of the “Yellow Line” on a satellite image with red dots showing positions of Israeli military outposts following the cease-fire.

The Khan Yunis area itself is bisected by the “Yellow Line” drawn at the 10 October 2025 cease-fire, which separates Israeli from Hamas-controlled areas of the 365 square kilometer enclave. Most of the governate remains under Israeli military control, with nearly a dozen Israeli army positions situated near or along the Yellow Line. 

Since the cease-fire took effect in October 2025, Israeli troops have continued to carry out targeted assassinations against alleged militant Hamas figures throughout Gaza –  killing some 713 people in total according to Gaza Ministry of Health. That is the death toll cited by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in its latest, 2 April report.  Although the Gaza MOH data makes no distinction between civilian and military casualties, a significant number have been civilians, including women and children, UN and eyewitness reports. 

Attacks on health facilities in Lebanon during current war US-Israel with Iran

At the briefing, Lindmeier also detailed the situation in Lebanon where, according to WHO reports, there have been some 92 attacks on  health facilities, since Hezbollah entered the war on 2 March, launching heavy missile fire against northern and central Israel. 

Some 53 Lebanese health workers have been killed in subsequent Israeli attacks, mostly in southern Lebanon, according to the WHO reports. And around 51 primary health facilities and six hospitals are now closed in the south, Lindmeier said. That followed an Israeli order demanding the mass evacuation of  Lebanese civilians living in the border region south of the Litani river  – as Israel seeks to limit, so far unsuccessfully, Hezbollah’s range of fire into northern Israeli communities.

Humanitarian access to southern Lebanon severely limited 

Displaced people sleep in the coastal area of ​​Ain El Mreisseh in Beirut on 11 March 2026.

Humanitarian access to southern Lebanon where an estimated 150,000 people have chosen to remain “continues to be a major logistical and security issue,” Lindmeier said.  Throughout the country, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health has reported at least 1461 deaths, including  129 children, and over 4,400 injuries, he said. Israel claims that about 1000 Hezbollah fighters have been killed during the conflict. 

“Displacement [in Lebanon] remains massive, with over 1 million self-registered internally displaced people, with some nearly 140,000 hosted in 674 collective shelters placing significant pressure on services, particularly Beirut and Mount Lebanon,” Lindmeier added. 

“Displacement is driving rising risks of infectious diseases, including measles, hepatitis A and acute diarrheal diseases, particularly in overcrowded shelter situations.” Women and children make up the majority of those displaced and are disproportionately affected.”

Thousands of Israelis have also abandoned their homes along the country’s northern border with Lebanon as the war grinds on with dozens of Hezbollah missiles still being fired into their communities every day. Thirty-nine Israelis, including 27 civilians, have so far died since the war began on 28 February from combined Iranian, Hezbollah and Yemenite Houthi missile and rocket fire.  Some 7500 Israelis, including over 1000 children,  have been injured  in the war, according to Israel’s Ministry of Health.  Four West Bank Palestinians were also killed by an Iranian missile in March, while Israeli settlers have taken advantage of the war to ransack and terrorize West Bank Palestinian communities, killing at least ten civilians, including two children, and injuring more than 215, according to one Israeli civil rights group.  

Iran – mounting death toll and massive displacement 

Photos of missile damage in Tehran shared by WHO in an X post last week denouncing on the destruction of Iran’s Pasteur Institute.

In Iran, meanwhile, numbers of Iranian casualties remain unclear with official Iranian figures putting the figure at a little over 2000, while a recent report by a  Iranian human rights group talks about the death of about 3600 people, including about 1,600 civilians, with the latter toll mounting. Israeli and US media reports have claimed that more than 6,000 military personnel have been killed.   

Some 3.2 million people have been displaced internally as Iranians flee Tehran and other major cities that have become targets in the joint US-Israeli campaign. 

There have been some 23 attacks on Iranian health facilities or health personnel during the US-Israeli war on Iran, resulting in nine deaths, according to the WHO dashboard tracking such incidents. 

That included an attack last week on Tehran’s Pasteur Institute, which was called out by WHO Director General Tedros in an X post, which was reposted by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.    

Some observers, however, contend that the Pasteur Istitute had also become engaged  in biological weapons research, citing reports such as one from the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).  Asked to respond, WHO did not comment.    

Protective gear for a chemical or biological incident – which can be as dangerous to health as a nuclear one.

Attack on Kuwait water desalination facilities

In another post last week, Tedros also denounced an Iranian attack on two water desalination facilities, noting that “Damage to desalination facilities jeopardizes hospitals, health‑care services, and the well‑being of the entire population.” Some 32 civilians in Gulf countries have died in Iranian missile attacks, according to media reports. 

Regarding targeting of Kuwait’s water supplies, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign affairs criticized the WHO DG for failing to name Iran as the attacker – he has called out Israel in other posts related to the war. 

Asked whether WHO was indeed being selective in terms of military aggressors that it names – and it does not, a WHO spokesperson told Health Policy Watch the following: 

“”Health facilities, workers and patients must not be attacked nor used for military purposes, and the principles of precaution, distinction and proportionality are absolute and always apply. 

“Health care depends on the facilities and workers that deliver it; attacking them destroys lives, health systems and, of great potential importance, the paths that lead to post war peace and reconciliation.” 

 

Image Credits: @AlJarmaq News, cc/Al Jazeera , World Food Programme , @DrTedros /X, RUSI.

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