Israel Pays UN $10.5 Million for Gaza

By Amanda Vance

This UN warehouse, containing food and medicine, was damaged during Israel’s offensive in Gaza from December 2008 to January 2009. UN Photo.

Feb. 3 -- Despite disagreements between Israel and the United Nations since the publication of the Goldstone report on Israel’s offensive in Gaza that began in late 2008, Israel has agreed to pay the organization $10.5 million for damages to its facilities during the assault. Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s military strike against Hamas, which rules Gaza, lasted three weeks, from December 2008 to January 2009.

The $10.5 million payment, agreed after negotiations between the two parties that started in July 2009, covers both injuries and property damages that resulted from Israel’s shelling of UN buildings. According to the Goldstone report – named for Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, who led the investigation and commissioned by the UN’s Human Rights Council, the worst damage to UN property occurred on Jan. 15.

This was when a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees compound containing food and medicine supplies, fuel depots and 600 to 700 civilians, as well as a training center, were hit with shells containing white phosphorous. There were no deaths. In other strikes, Israel targeted the area around multiple UN schools, including one sheltering 1,368 civilians, resulting in 42 deaths. The report concluded that 57 UN Relief and Works Agency buildings were damaged, 15 of its staff members were killed and 21 other contractors were injured.

A Human Rights Tragedy in Geneva

Initially, an investigation into these incidents, conducted by the UN Headquarters Board of Inquiry, sought $11.2 million in damages. The board later lowered the amount to $10.5 million.

According to Secretary General Ban-ki moon’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, “The financial issues relating to those incidents are concluded.”

Legal Responsibility

Nevertheless, other major issues related to the attacks and Operation Cast Lead remain unresolved. The main lingering question regards legal responsibility for the attacks. Yet the Goldstone report accused Israel of using disproportionate force and of committing possible war crimes.

As Nesirky says in his announcement after the settlement, “The UN and Israel agreed to put the question of legal responsibility to one side for the purpose of settling the organization's claim.”

In a report on Jan. 29, 2010, Israel denied Goldstone’s allegations but admitted that “some operational lapses and errors in the exercise of discretion” occurred during the conflict in Gaza. Israel has also reprimanded two senior officers, a brigadier general and a colonel, for the firing of the artillery shells that hit the UN compound in January 2009 in “a rare admission of high-level wrong-doing.”

Israel denies, however, that it used white phosphorous shells to illuminate targets, which cause burns, and refutes claims that it is responsible for war crimes, noting that Hamas operatives use civilians and UN buildings as shields when firing missiles into Israel territory.

Amanda Vance is a publications intern at UNA-USA and a student at the Bard College Globalization and International Affairs Program in New York City.