UNICEF Says Israeli Fire Kills Two Gaza Water Truck Drivers
April 17 (Reuters) – The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Friday it was “outraged” after two truck drivers with whom it had a contract to distribute clean water to families in the Gaza Strip died in Israeli fire.
The incident occurred on Friday morning during a routine water truck transport at the Mansoura water filling point in northern Gaza, which supplies water to Gaza City, the UN agency said in a statement. Two more people were injured in the attack.
UNICEF announced that it was suspending activities in the region and called on Israeli authorities to investigate, emphasizing that humanitarian workers, civilians and vital water infrastructure must be protected under international humanitarian law.
Israel’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A ceasefire signed between Israel and Hamas in October halted two years of full-scale war but left Israeli troops in control of a sparsely populated area that makes up more than half of Gaza; Hamas was in power on the remaining narrow coastal strip.
Since then, more than 750 Palestinians have been killed, while militants also killed four Israeli soldiers, according to local medics. Israel and Hamas exchanged blame for ceasefire violations.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto. Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
