UN suspends two peacekeeping staff over sexual misconduct in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM: Two male staff members of the U.N. peacekeeping operation in the Middle East have been placed on leave after an initial inquiry found they had engaged in sexual misconduct, a U.N. spokesman said. The United Nations’ internal investigations office launched the inquiry after a video circulated on social media appearing to show a woman straddling a man in the back seat of a U.N.-marked vehicle as it was driven down a coastal boulevard in Tel Aviv. “Two male international staff members who were in the UN vehicle in Tel Aviv have been identified as having engaged in misconduct, including conduct of a sexual nature,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement late on Thursday. Dujarric said the video involved staff of the Jerusalem-based United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), which provides military observers to monitoring missions in south Lebanon and the Golan Heights, according to its website.