A World Health Organization staff member, Dima Alhaj, aged 29, tragically lost her life in Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territory, amidst the ongoing conflict.
The WHO released a statement on Tuesday night confirming the news.
Alhaj was killed on Tuesday when her parents’ residence in southern Gaza, where she had sought refuge from Gaza City, was bombed.
Tragically, she, her husband, their six-month-old baby boy, and her two brothers lost their lives in the attack.
The WHO reported that more than 50 family and community members who had sought shelter in the same house also lost their lives in the incident.
Dima Alhaj served as a patient administrator at the Limb Reconstruction Centre, an integral part of the WHO Trauma and Emergency Team.
She held a bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Earth Sciences from the Islamic University of Gaza and dedicated herself to studying environmental issues and their intersection with health.
She was a master’s student at Glasgow University, Scotland, UK, as part of the Erasmus exchange program from 2018-2019.
The WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Dr Rik Peeperkorn, said “She was a wonderful person with a radiant smile, cheerful, positive, respectful. She was a true team player. Her work was crucial, and she had been requested to take on even more responsibilities to support the Gaza suboffice and team. This is such a painful loss for all of us. We share our deepest condolences with her mother and father (a long-serving medical specialist in Gaza), her family, and her many friends.
“The death of Dima and her family is another example of the senseless loss in this conflict. Civilians have died in their homes, at their workplaces, while evacuating, while sheltering in schools, while being cared for in hospitals.
“We plead again with all those who hold in their hands the power to end this conflict to do so.
“All of the WHO stands alongside Dima’s family and colleagues in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, and across the organization to mourn her loss.”
