UN Launches Probe into First International Staff Killed by Unidentified Strike in Rafah 

Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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UN Launches Probe into First International Staff Killed by Unidentified Strike in Rafah 

Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The United Nations has launched an investigation into an unidentified strike on a UN car in Rafah on Monday that killed its first international staff in Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said. 

The staffer, a retired Indian Army officer named Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack. 

On Wednesday, India's foreign ministry said its diplomatic missions were "in touch with relevant authorities" on the investigation, and helping to bring home the remains. 

Israel has been moving deeper into Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave's north on Tuesday in some of the fiercest attacks in months. 

Israel's international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled, and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters. 

In a statement on Monday after Kale's death, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated an "urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages," saying the conflict in Gaza was continuing to take a heavy toll "not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers". 

Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people and driven most of the enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes. 

On Tuesday, the UN Secretary General's deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said the UN had set up a fact-finding panel to determine the responsibility for the attack. 

"It’s very early in the investigation, and details of the incident are still being verified with the Israeli Defense Force," he said. 

There are 71 international UN staff members in Gaza currently, he said. 

Israel, which launched its Gaza operation after an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to its tallies, has ordered civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah. 

The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA estimates some 450,000 people have fled the city since May 6. More than a million civilians had sought refuge there. 



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.