The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced by the war
Gaza:
The civil defense agency in Hamas-run Gaza said at least four people were killed in an attack Sunday on a school housing displaced Palestinians, the second Israeli attack in two days.
The Israeli military, which has long accused Palestinian officers of using schools and other civilian infrastructure, confirmed the attack “near the school” in Gaza City.
A statement said the school complex was used as a shelter and housed “a Hamas weapons factory.”
The civil defense agency said Ihab al-Ghusain, the Hamas government’s deputy labor minister, was among those killed in the attack on the Holy Family School.
The strike came a day after a UN-run school in the central Nuseirat refugee camp was hit, in an attack that killed 16 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and which was condemned by the United Nations. Israel said militants were hiding there.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations that militants were hiding in civilian infrastructure.
The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, now in its tenth month, and many have sought shelter in UN-run schools in the besieged area.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, expressed outrage at the repeated attacks on its buildings.
“One more day. Another month. Another school hit,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on social media platform X.
#Gaza
Another day.
Another month.
Another school hit.Again, @UNRWA school hit by the Israeli forces.
The school, in the Central Areas, housed nearly 2,000 internally displaced persons; dozens of casualties were reported.Since the start of the war, nine months ago today:
-…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 7, 2024
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma told AFP that 190 – or more than half – of the agency’s facilities in Gaza have been hit, “some more than once”, since the war began with Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.
“When the war started, we closed the schools and they became shelters,” she said.
As of Thursday, 194 UNRWA workers had been killed, Touma added.
Since then, the UN agency separately reported that two more people were killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday.
There were 450 “incidents” involving UNRWA buildings during the war, said Touma, who said the damage was “unprecedented in the history of the UN.”
“Any attack on UN facilities is shocking and there is a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law in relation to this conflict,” she added.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.
Hamas also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 who the army says are dead.
In response, Israel has carried out a military offensive that has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, including mostly civilians, according to data from the territory’s health ministry.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)