DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The United Nations stated Monday it can “reduce its footprint” within the Gaza Strip after an Israeli tank strike hit certainly one of its compounds final week, killing one staffer and wounding 5 others.
Israel has denied it was behind the March 19 explosion on the U.N. guesthouse in central Gaza. In an announcement Monday, U.N. Secretary-Basic spokesman Stéphane Dujarric stated that “based on the information currently available,” the strikes on the positioning “were caused by an Israeli tank.”
The Israeli navy didn’t instantly remark.
Dujarric stated the U.N. “has made taken the difficult decision to reduce the Organization’s footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soar.”
He stated the world physique was chopping again a couple of third of its roughly 100 worldwide staffers in Gaza. He stated the U.N. “is not leaving Gaza,” stating that it nonetheless has about 13,000 nationwide employees in Gaza, primarily working for UNRWA, the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees.
The transfer comes as Israel has lower off all meals, gasoline, medication and different provides to Gaza’s round 2 million individuals for greater than three weeks. Final week, it relaunched its navy marketing campaign in Gaza, with bombardments which have since killed a whole bunch of Palestinians, breaking a ceasefire in place since mid-January.
Israel says it’s focusing on Hamas to drive it to just accept new phrases for the ceasefire and launch extra hostages.
Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the U.N.’s humanitarian workplace, often known as OCHA, stated the U.N. and its companions have already suspended plenty of actions, many in training, safety and water and sanitation companies. The explanation, she was, was security considerations and the affect of Israeli evacuation orders.
“A lot things are constrained right now because of the security situation,” she advised AP earlier than Dujarric’s announcement. “The challenges are massive. We have had a lot of our activities affected by the situation and a lot of our partners have had to suspend operations because it is just not safe.”
Motion of vans, together with these distributing water, have been affected, she stated. Solely 29 out of 237 short-term studying areas have resumed their actions for the reason that ceasefire collapse, she stated.
The United Nations beforehand didn’t say who was behind the strike on its compound. The Bulgarian staffer who was killed, Marin Valev Marinov, 51, was a member of the U.N. Workplace for Venture Companies, which carries out infrastructure and improvement tasks world wide.
A strike exploded close to the compound, then hit it instantly within the days earlier than the lethal strike, UNOPS chief Jorge Moreira da Silva stated earlier. He stated the company had contacted the Israeli navy after the primary strike and confirmed that the navy was conscious of the ability’s location.
