The Israel Army said this Friday that a ‘firing component’ launched by its Navy the day before accidentally hit a fuel truck belonging to a United Nations agency in Gaza, an incident that led the agency to publicly call for a full investigation.
The United Nations Office for Project Services, which oversees fuel distribution in Gaza, said the empty fuel truck was hit on Thursday at around 5am heading out to sea, causing damage to the vehicle. There were no injuries.
“Our teams are taking extraordinary risks every day to keep humanitarian operations and life-sustaining services running,” Unops executive director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in a statement, calling for an investigation into the incident.
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“They shouldn’t have to do this under fire,” he said.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli army said the incident occurred during defensive naval activity and that a firing component deviated from its intended trajectory.
The fuel truck suffered ‘minor damage’, the military said in a statement. The military did not say what type of ammunition had been fired or what the Navy’s intended target was.
“The incident has been reviewed and lessons learned accordingly,” the Army said, without providing details.
The fuel truck was on its way to the Kerem Shalom crossing when it was hit, and the vehicle’s movements were coordinated with Israeli authorities in advance, Unops said.
