Israeli army fire on WHO vehicle in southern Gaza kills one, medics report
A member of staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) has been killed in Gaza and several others injured when the Israeli army fired on their vehicle, according to sources, including an Al Jazeera correspondent.
WHO driver Majdi Aslan, 54, was killed on Monday. A doctor from the international organisation and several other Palestinians were also injured in the incident in eastern Khan Younis, according to sources at the enclave’s Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals.
As the world’s attention remains fixed on the United States-Israel war on Iran, Israel is continuing its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has seen near-daily Israeli fire and strikes since a fragile ceasefire was reached in October, with more than 700 Palestinians killed since, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Monday’s incident took place in an area close to the so-called yellow line in eastern Khan Younis, reported Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud. Israeli forces shot “indiscriminately” at people and vehicles moving along the Salah al-Din Street in the southern Gaza Strip, he said.
A commercial vehicle was transporting civilians between southern and central Gaza. It was followed by a car carrying WHO employees, said Mahmoud. “The driver was shot in the head, and by the time he was transported to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, he was announced dead,” the correspondent reported from Gaza City. Seven or so others suffered injuries, he added.
Jobless young Palestinians trapped as Israel holds Gaza’s economy hostage
Mahmoud Shamiya walks to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea every day just to pass the time. He is among Gaza’s tens of thousands of young people who have no work as the economy collapsed during Israel’s devastating war.
Shamiya graduated from Al-Aqsa University with a degree in basic education three years ago, dreaming of becoming a teacher and a role model for children. Today, his daily routine consists of fetching water, scavenging for firewood and surviving in a tent.
“The occupation and this war came and destroyed all the landmarks of education in Gaza,” Shamiya said. “Today, we have become aimless, jobless, and hopeless. We live a deadly routine.”
Israel destroyed most universities and schools in Gaza – home to 2.3 million people – and killed at least 72,000 Palestinians in military operations described as genocide by the UN and global scholars.
Shamiya’s despair reflects a broader generational catastrophe. Approximately 70 percent of Gaza’s residents are under 30 and they are navigating a reality that the United Nations describes as the fastest and most damaging economic collapse on record.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, unemployment in the Gaza Strip has increased to 80 percent. The local gross domestic product (GDP) has plunged by 87 percent over the past two years to a mere $362m, with GDP per capita down to $161.
Economists says that’s effectively erased 22 years of development, leaving the territory’s youth completely cut off from the outside world and denied the ability to study, work, or secure their basic survival.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/4/6/jobless-young-palestinians-trapped-as-israel-holds-gazas-economy-hostage
