(19 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 19 March 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Jorge Moreira da Silva, United Nations Office for Project Services Executive Director:
“A UNOPS colleague has been killed in Gaza following explosions in Deir al-Balah. It’s where we have our compound, our guest house, our premises in Gaza.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip – 19 March 2025
2. Various of UN vest on gurney
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 19 March 2025
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jorge Moreira da Silva, United Nations Office for Project Services Executive Director:
“These premises were well known by the Israeli Defense Forces and they were de-conflicted. And you know what does it mean de-conflicting, it means that everyone knew who was working inside the premises. It was U.N. personnel, UNOPS. It is also understood that there are at least five additional casualties, several of whom are very severely injured. In addition to this colleague that lost his life, these other five colleagues lost their eyes, legs, so they are severely injured following today’s attacks.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip – 19 March 2025
4. Various of injured UN worker being taken into emergency department of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital treated
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir al-Balah, Gaza – 19 March 2025
5. Ambulance carrying injured UN worker leaving
6. UN vehicle leaving hospital
7. UN officials arriving at hospital
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 19 March 2025
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jorge Moreira da Silva, United Nations Office for Project Services Executive Director:
“In my opinion, this was not an accident. It cannot be categorized as an accident. It is at least an incident. What is happening in Gaza is unconscionable. I am shocked. I am shocked and devastated by this tragic news.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir al-Balah, Gaza – 19 March 2025
9. Various of body of killed UN foreign worker inside ambulance
STORYLINE:
An international United Nations staffer was killed and five others were wounded in a strike Wednesday on a U.N. guesthouse in the Gaza Strip, as Israel pressed on with a new offensive in the territory that shattered a fragile ceasefire with Hamas.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the U.N. Office for Project Services, declined to say who carried out the strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah but said the explosive ordnance was “dropped or fired” and the blast was not accidental or related to demining activity.
“In my opinion, this was not an accident," he said at a news briefing in Brussels. "It cannot be categorized as an accident."
He did not provide the nationalities of those killed and wounded. The U.N. body, known as UNOPS, carries out infrastructure and development projects around the world.
The Israeli military, which has carried out a heavy wave of airstrikes throughout Gaza since early Tuesday, denied earlier reports that it had targeted the U.N. 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.
After the strike on Wednesday, the wounded were rushed to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. One man was carried inside on a blanket held up by medical workers. Another lay on a hospital bed, his knee bandaged. A blue protective vest emblazoned with “UN” rested on a nearby bed.
AP video shot by Mark Carlson
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