The UN food agency has announced that it is suspending the movements of its staff in the Gaza Strip “until further notice” after one of its vehicles was hit by gunfire at an Israeli military checkpoint.
Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said of Tuesday’s incident: “This is completely unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have put the lives of the WFP team in Gaza at risk.
“As last night’s events demonstrate, the current system of conflict prevention is failing and cannot continue like this.”
The vehicle was hit at least 10 times as it approached the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza Bridge after completing a mission in the southern Gaza Strip, the WFP said in a statement. No one was injured.
“Although this was not the first security incident during the war, it is the first time that a WFP vehicle was directly fired upon near a checkpoint despite the necessary permits having been obtained,” the WFP said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
The agency released a picture of a white truck with UN markings whose windows appeared to have been damaged by several bullets and said it was “a few meters” from the Israeli checkpoint when it was hit.
UN Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “A clearly marked UN humanitarian vehicle, which was part of a convoy fully coordinated with Israeli forces, was shot at 10 times by Israeli forces, including through its windshields.
“We have no way of assessing the mentality of those who are shooting at us,” Dujarric said, noting that it was not clear whether information about the convoy’s movement that was shared with Israeli authorities was passed on.
In May, a UN employee from India was killed in the south of the Gaza Strip when his vehicle was hit by a tank, the United Nations said.
The latest incident comes as the UN prepares to vaccinate some 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip, where a 10-month-old baby has been paralyzed by poliovirus type 2, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, according to the World Health Organization.
The current war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen entered Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 hostages, according to Israeli sources.
Since then, the Israeli military has razed large parts of the Palestinian territory and displaced almost the entire population of 2.3 million from their homes. According to Palestinian health authorities, this has caused deadly hunger and disease and left at least 40,000 people dead.
The UN has long complained that there are difficulties in getting aid to Gaza during the war and distributing it in the face of “total lawlessness” in the area.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
