Deaths prompt United Nations Gaza exit

The United Nations is withdrawing its workers from the Gaza Strip after a UN truck driver was killed and two others were injured by gunfire from an Israeli tank. The humanitarian workers had been driving to the Israeli border to collect an aid package.

On a day when Israel unleashed its heaviest bombing of the conflict, Adnan Abu Hasna, the United Nations relief and works agency (UNRWA) spokesman in Gaza, said that his organization was suspending all operations "because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel". The decision follows the January 6 bombing of a UN school which left 43 Palestinians dead and 150 injured.

Chris Gunness, also of UNRWA, spoke out against the Israeli military: "Our installations have been hit, our workers have been killed in spite of the fact that the Israeli authorities have the coordinates of our facilities and all our movements are coordinated with the Israeli army."

The UN's 9,000 staff provide food for 750,000 people in Gaza, and also run many of the region's schools and surgeries. Since Ban Ki-moon took over as Secretary-General, the agency's relationship with Israel has been cordial. But this is not the first time that the Israeli military has attacked UN buildings. In 1996, Israeli planes accidentally bombed the UN compound at Qana in Lebanon, killing over 100 civilians. And in 2006, four UN peacekeepers were killed at Khiam in Lebanon after Israeli forces repeatedly bombed their compound.

FIRST POSTED JANUARY 8, 2009