UN says Israeli tank shell killed Bulgarian in Gaza

The UN said today that an Israeli tank strike hit one of its compounds last week, killing Bulgarian Marin Marinov and wounding five other staff members, focus-news.net reported.

The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, announced that he would temporarily remove about a third of the international staff working in Gaza due to the increased danger in the region.

Dujarric's statement was the first that the UN pointed the finger at Israel in the March 19 explosion at the UN guesthouse in central Gaza. He said that "based on the information currently available," the strikes on the site "were caused by an Israeli tank."

The Israeli army repeated its denial that it was responsible for the strike, which occurred the day after Israel violated a two-month ceasefire with a surprise bombing in the Gaza Strip.

"Focus" recalls that last week, aid workers, including a Bulgarian, were killed in Gaza. In the strike on the UN compound near Deir al-Balah, 51-year-old employee Marin Valev Marinov was killed. However, the Israeli ambassador to Bulgaria denied that there were any Israeli military actions at the time.