UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at a news briefing on Tuesday that the Israeli military had detained a convoy of international and local staff members from various UN bodies at gunpoint as they traveled to northern Gaza to help roll out the polio vaccination campaign.

He said Israeli forces stopped the convoy at a checkpoint and added that they wanted to hold two of its members for questioning.

“The situation escalated very quickly, with soldiers pointing their weapons directly towards our personnel in the convoy,” he said.

“The UN vehicles were encircled by Israeli forces and shots were fired,” he added.

He went on to say that the convoy was then approached by Israeli tanks and a bulldozer, “which proceeded to ram the UN vehicles from the front and from the back, compacting the convoy with UN staff inside.”