Bulgaria probing death of national killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian prosecutors confirm that they are investigating the death of one of their country’s citizens, a UN worker, in the Gaza Strip after he was struck by Israeli tank fire.

Marin Marinov was killed on March 19 when two UN buildings in the central city of Deir el-Balah were hit by explosives.

Israel’s military had initially denied responsibility for the blast, before acknowledging in late April that Israeli tank fire had killed Marinov.

Israel then issued an official apology.

A lawyer for Marinov’s daughter says prosecutors opened the inquiry in May as part of pre-trial proceedings into the suspected “murder of a person under international protection.”

“The immediate objective is to identify the commander of the tank that fired the fatal shell,” the lawyer, Mincho Spasov, tells AFP.

He says a UN forensic report indicated that Marinov was killed by a precision-guided shell, not by random shooting.

“These munitions can be programmed not only for direction but also for distance,” he says, alleging that this suggested intent.

He adds that Bulgaria was preparing requests for legal assistance to both Israel and France, as a French citizen was wounded in the same strike.