The United Nations (UN) has reported that the death of an Indian staff member in Gaza this week was due to an Israeli tank attack on his vehicle.
Col Waibhav Kale, a former Indian army officer, died on Monday when a UN vehicle was struck near Rafah. Another staff member was injured.
Col Kale’s death marks the first international UN worker casualty in Gaza since the conflict began.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that the incident is under review.
On Wednesday, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq asserted that there was “no doubt” that shots from an Israeli tank hit the rear of the car, which was clearly marked as a UN vehicle.
Haq emphasized that the UN is seeking to understand the circumstances of the attack and is in discussions with Israeli authorities.
He added that the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), which employed the two staff members, has established a fact-finding panel to investigate the incident.
The UN previously stated that the workers were en route to the European Hospital near Rafah when their vehicle was hit.
Footage shared on social media and verified by the BBC showed a UN-marked vehicle with multiple bullet holes outside the hospital.
The Israeli military’s initial inquiry indicated that the vehicle was struck in an active combat zone and that it had not been informed of the vehicle’s route.
However, the UN maintained that the vehicle was clearly marked and that its planned movements had been communicated in advance to Israeli authorities.
Col Kale, 46, was from the western Indian state of Maharashtra and had joined the UNDSS in Gaza weeks before the attack. This was his first deployment in the region.
“He told me that he had joined the UN because it seemed like the best way to make a difference,” Gilles Michaud, the Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, said in a statement.
“He signed up to work in support of people who desperately need help; in the most dangerous place, at a time of unimaginable crisis. This speaks volumes about his character,” he said.
Kale had spent 22 years in the Indian army before he opted for an early retirement; he later worked in a private firm, his family told BBC Marathi.
But unhappy with a desk job, he joined the UNDSS in April.
“Waibhav Kale, an Indian, had nothing to do with Hamas or Israel or this war. But he has sacrificed his life for peace. Now, peace must be restored in Gaza,” his cousin Chinmay Kale told local media.
India’s mission to the UN in New York expressed its “deepest condolences” to Col Kale’s family.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated on Monday that he was “deeply saddened” by the worker’s death and extended his condolences to the family, according to a statement from Farhan Haq.
In a separate statement, Guterres mentioned that over 190 UN staff members had been killed in Gaza since the war began.
Besides Col Kale, six international aid workers and a Palestinian colleague from the international food charity World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli strike at the beginning of April.
Their deaths triggered an international outcry, leading to the dismissal of two senior officers by the IDF, which described the incident as a “grave accident.”
Israel initiated a military campaign in Gaza with the goal of destroying Hamas, the group controlling Gaza, in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 252 hostages taken.
Since then, more than 35,090 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.