ǿմý

Skip to main content

Shots fired during IDF's detention of United Nations convoy in Gaza, UN spokesman says

An Israeli soldier takes up a position next to a damaged car that is piled up with concrete as protection for Israeli soldiers next to UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) An Israeli soldier takes up a position next to a damaged car that is piled up with concrete as protection for Israeli soldiers next to UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Share

Shots were fired during the Israeli military’s hours-long detention of a convoy of United Nations vehicles in Gaza, the UN Secretary General’s spokesperson said Tuesday.

The situation “escalated quickly” after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stopped the convoy at a checkpoint on Monday and demanded to take two of its 12 passengers for questioning, according to the spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric.

Dujarric said the Israeli soldiers had pointed their weapons at the UN personnel and that at some point during the incident “shots were fired.”

He said IDF tanks and bulldozers then “proceeded to ram the UN vehicles from the back and front, compacting the convoy with UN staff still inside.”

“One bulldozer dropped debris on the first vehicle, while Israeli soldiers threatened staff, making it impossible for them to safely exit their vehicles,” he added.

The convoy was later released and UN officials have confirmed their staff returned safely to a UN base.

CNN has asked the IDF for comment on Dujarric’s account of the incident, which took place at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint.

Previously, the IDF said it had acted “following intelligence that a number of Palestinian suspects were present in the convoy.”

The Israeli military had also claimed previously that the convoy was not involved in the transport of polio vaccines but was being used instead to exchange UN personnel.

However, the UN has insisted that the convoy was involved in polio vaccinations and contained national and international staff members who were meant to be rolling out the campaign for children in Gaza City and northern Gaza.

Dujarric said that despite the incident, vaccinations were able to begin in northern Gaza on Tuesday – the third phase of the UN-led campaign which is expected to continue through Thursday.

On Monday, Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UNWRA – the UN’s main agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief – criticized the IDF’s conduct in the incident as “the latest in a series of violations against UN staff including shootings at convoys and arrests by the Israeli Armed Forces at checkpoints despite prior notification.”

CTVNews.ca ǿմý

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.