The Israeli army bombed a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, killing at least 18 people, including six staff members of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Wednesday’s strike that destroyed part of the UN-run facilities in the Nuseirat refugee camp was condemned by several countries and UN agencies.
According to UNRWA, around 12,000 displaced Palestinians, mostly women and children, were sheltering in al-Jaouni when Israeli forces carried out two airstrikes on the building.
“Continued and senseless massacres, day after day,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. “Staff, premises and humanitarian operations have been flagrantly and uninterruptedly violated since the beginning of the war.”
The deaths of six staff members bring to at least 220 the number of UNRWA employees killed in Gaza.
Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman in Gaza Mahmoud Basal posted on the Telegram messaging app that the school had been bombed for the fifth time and more than 18 people had been injured.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said that “the carnage in Gaza must stop.”
“No words can convey the true horror and loss of life in Gaza,” he wrote on X. “Hospitals, schools and shelters have been repeatedly bombed, resulting in the deaths of civilians and humanitarians.”
Many school buildings have been repurposed to house displaced families across the besieged Gaza Strip, as the majority of the enclave’s 2.4 million people have been repeatedly uprooted by war.
Israeli forces have struck several such schools in recent months, claiming that Hamas was operating from the locations and hiding among civilians. The Palestinian group has denied the accusations.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had carried out a “precise strike” against a Hamas command and control center in the al-Jaouni compound. It did not give details of the results of the operation, but said “numerous measures” had been taken to reduce the risk to civilians.
