JERUSALEM, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Israel has agreed in principle to pay back the United Nations for damages it sustained during the Israeli incursion in Gaza a year ago, officials said Thursday.
Israeli bombardments hit the United Nations' main center in Gaza City and at least three U.N.-run schools were attacked, the United Nations said in a release. The losses also included a warehouse filled with hundreds of tons of food and medicine.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said details of the agreement would not be disclosed until the accord has been concluded and the payment made. He said there have been inaccuracies in news reports.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak discussed the damages during a recent phone conversation and the international organization is now waiting to hear back from the Israeli government, Nesirky said.
Haaretz reported a U.N. inquiry last year put the damage figure at more than $11 million, with almost all of it caused by Israeli forces. The Israeli newspaper said another U.N. official, who it did not name, said $10.5 million was "the figure that has been bandied about, but nothing has been finalized."
