The United Nations said Monday it will “reduce its footprint” in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli tank strike hit one of its compounds, killing one staffer and wounding five others last week.
Israel has denied it was behind the March 19 explosion at the UN guesthouse in central Gaza.
In a statement Monday, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that “based on the information currently available,” the strikes on the site “were caused by an Israeli tank.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Dujarric also said the UN would be cutting back about a third of its approximately 100 international staffers in Gaza.
He said the UN “is not leaving Gaza,” pointing out that it still has about 13,000 national staff in Gaza, mainly working for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The UN “has made taken the difficult decision to reduce the Organization’s footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soar,” he said. The move comes as Israel has cut off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza’s around 2 million people for more than three weeks.