The UN Cuts Staff in Gaza After Israel Attacks Its Compound Deadly

The United Nations has said that it will be lowering the number of its international team in Gaza in response to Israeli attacks on Palestinian land.

After Israeli forces launched fresh attacks on Palestinian land, killing hundreds of people, including UN staff, the UN stated it would be scaling back its international team in Gaza.

In a news briefing on Monday, UN spokesperson Stephan Dujarric announced that about 30 of the organization’s 100 or so foreign employees would depart Gaza this week. He acknowledged that the pullout would occur at a time when humanitarian needs have increased and “concern over the protection of civilians intensifies.”

According to Dujarric, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the “temporary measure” for operational and security concerns after considering several options.

The attack on a UN facility in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on March 19 that killed a Bulgarian UN staff member and seriously injured six other international staff members was carried out by an Israeli tank, the UN spokesman also confirmed.

The attack on the prominently identified UN site was first linked to Israeli forces by the UN in Dujarric’s statement. It comes a day after Israel violated its ceasefire agreement with Hamas following only two months of comparatively calm conditions, and after Israel’s military denied repeatedly that it was behind the hit.

The cut in staff is applicable to international employees, according to news reports from UN headquarters in New York. The organization nevertheless employs thousands of people in Gaza, primarily Palestinians, hundreds of whom have been murdered since Israel began its attack on the enclave.

“The great majority of the UN’s 13,000+ employees in Gaza are Palestinians who serve in vital humanitarian capacities in Gaza as doctors, nurses, and drivers,” Elizondo stated.

“There have been over 250 deaths in the last 15 months or so, but the secretary-general is now saying that the situation is so dangerous that he is going to reduce that staffing by about one-third, or about 30 of those international staff, who are going to leave Gaza for their own safety,” Elizondo stated.

Additionally, according to Dujarric, Secretary-General Guterres has called for “a full, thorough and independent investigation” of the March 19 tank attack on the UN facility.

Israel said it hit a Hamas location where they were getting ready to shoot into Israeli territory.

“I think that’s one of the reasons we need to have a pretty clear and transparent investigation,” Dujarric said in response to a question about whether the UN thought the Israeli tank offensive was a planned attack on the UN building, of which Israeli forces were aware of the precise position.

The Israeli military acknowledged firing on a Red Cross headquarters in Rafah, south of Gaza, on Monday. A case of mistaken identity was cited as the reason for the attack.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that an explosive projectile damaged its office in Rafah, although no employees were injured. Without identifying the perpetrator of the explosion, the ICRC stated that the damage had a direct effect on its capacity to function.

According to health professionals, since October 7, 2023, Israel’s attack on Gaza has killed over 50,000 Palestinians and injured about 113,200 more.