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Israel Fired on U.N. Food Convoy It Gave Permission to Enter Gaza: Report

CNN reports that email correspondence showed the food convoy was given permission to enter, but it was still destroyed.

Israel fired on a United Nations convoy as it tried to enter Gaza this month despite Israeli military officials confirming it had permission to deliver food to civilians, CNN reported Wednesday, citing emails and U.N. documents. The airstrike occurred on Feb. 5, when a convoy tried to deliver much-needed wheat flour to the northern Gaza Strip, where displaced Palestinians are on the verge of famine. CNN reported that the strike, from the Israeli Navy, destroyed the flour in some trucks, and other trucks were barred from entering Gaza despite the U.N. agency delivering the wheat, the UNRWA, reportedly having written confirmation from COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees Gaza, that they had permission to enter the beseiged enclave. Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for UNRWA, told CNN their drivers used the exact route and timing they’d pre-arranged with Israel. “We share with the Israeli army the coordinates of the convoys, and the route of that convoy,” she said. “Only when the Israeli army gives us the okay, the green light, does UNRWA move. We don’t move without that coordination.” Nobody was injured in the Feb. 5 strike, which Israel hasn’t commented on, but Touma said Gaza aid workers are increasingly working under fire.