Gaza strike kills an international UN staffer and wounds 5 others

In this picture, taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, smoke rises over destroyed buildings in northern Gaza on March 19, 2025. Israel on March 18 launched its most intense strikes on the Gaza Strip since a January 19 ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas ended more than 15 months of war. ( AFP)

• The head of the UN Office for Project Services declined to say who carried out the strike
• “Israel knew this was a UN premise, that people were living, staying and working there”

GAZA: The United Nations says an international staffer was killed and five others wounded in a strike in the Gaza Strip.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the UN Office for Project Services, declined to say who carried out the strike but said the explosive ordnance was “dropped or fired” and the blast was not accidental or related to demining activity.
UNOPS operates the mechanism tracking aid trucks into Gaza, does demining and helps bring fuel in. He did not provide the nationalities of those killed and wounded.
The Israeli military, which has carried out a heavy wave of airstrikes since early Tuesday, denied earlier reports that it had targeted the UN compound.
But Moreira da Silva said strikes had hit near the compound on Monday and struck it directly on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, when the staffer was killed.
He said the agency had contacted the Israeli military after the first strike and confirmed that it was aware of the facility’s location. “Israel knew this was a UN premise, that people were living, staying and working there,” he said.
The attack came a day after Israel carried out a wave of heavy strikes that killed over 400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, shattering the ceasefire with Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the wave of strikes Tuesday was “only the beginning” and that Israel would press ahead until it achieves all of its war aims — destroying Hamas and freeing all hostages held by the militant group since its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel ignited the fighting.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 436 people, including 183 children and 94 women, have been killed since Israel launched airstrikes Tuesday.
Zaher Al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s records department, described it as the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war. Its records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.