UN to accept $10m in compensation from Israel for Gaza war damage

Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem

The United Nations is to accept more than $10 million (£6.2 million) from Israel as compensation for damage caused during the war in Gaza — a deal branded a cheap buyout by its own staff in the territory.

UN officials said the agreement would be announced in the coming days. It is the first time Israel is known to have paid the organization compensation for damage to its facilities in Palestinian territories, but Israeli officials emphasized that it would not set a precedent.

“This is a special agreement, reached on this particular issue, it carries no legal ramifications,” said an Israeli defense official, describing the payment as a “goodwill gesture”.

Though officials at the UN headquarters in New York said they were satisfied with the deal, local staff said they were outraged.

“Israel cannot think that it will buy us this cheaply,” said one, speaking anonymously because he did not have permission to comment on the agreement.

“We are not going to be bought off, to walk away and forget all the damage done by Israel during the Gaza war.”

The agreement, reached between UN officials in New York and the Israeli mission there, would provide compensation for an attack on January 15, 2009 by Israeli forces on a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warehouse in Gaza city.

During Operation Cast Lead, tanks shelled the warehouse, containing hundreds of tons of food and medicine; white phosphorus in the munitions meant the structure caught fire.

Days later Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, stood outside the still-smoldering compound and said: “It is an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack on the United Nations. There must be a full investigation, a full explanation to make sure it never happens again. There should be accountability through a proper judiciary system.”

He went on to condemn “excessive use” of force by Israel, as well as the rocket salvos fired by Hamas militants into southern Israel that provided the trigger for the assault, which began on December 27. In addition, he vowed to seek more than $11 million in payment from Israel.

Mr Ban revisited Gaza for the anniversary of the war, and said more should be done to address reconstruction, but did not reiterate his previous demands. In an internal report, the Israeli military said that the shelling of the warehouse was a “mistake” but defended its actions by stating that Palestinian militants had been hiding in and around the UN compound.

UN officials have rejected that account.

“Not a scrap of evidence exists to suggest that there were any militants or militant activity on our compound on January 15. Nor have the Israelis produced any evidence that there were any militants on any of our compounds,” Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman, told The Times yesterday.

“The Israelis have moved from saying that there was activity in the compound, to saying it was around ... The fact is that this is an Israeli fudge, because there were no militants.”

A UN-commissioned inquiry into damage caused during the 22-day war found that Israel had acted “recklessly” and “breached the inviolability of United Nations premises”.

The UN has estimated that more than 50,000 homes, 200 schools and 39 mosques were damaged or destroyed during the war, in addition to a number of UN facilities, including two schools, offices and dozens of vehicles.

A second UN investigation, the Goldstone report, which accused both sides of war crimes, has still not been brought before the Security Council more than a year after the end of Operation Cast Lead.

In one of the most serious incidents during the conflict, Israeli forces fired several mortar rounds around a UN school in the northern Gaza village of Jabaliya.

Palestinian officials said that more than 40 people who were taking refuge in the school were killed. Israel said that militants had been firing rockets from outside the building.

Gaza human rights groups say that approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s offensive, though Israel placed the figure at 1,166. Thirteen Israelis were killed.

Source: Times.
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6981539.ece.