The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said that six of its staff were killed during an airstrike on a school in the Nuseirat Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
In the pre-release, UNRWA did not directly indicate that Israel carried out the strike. At the same time, the Agency urged "all parties to the conflict" not to use schools as military targets.
UNRWA stressed that this was the largest number of deaths among its staff in a single incident. Among those who died were the head of the agencyʼs camp and other members of the team assisting the displaced.
The school in Nuseirat has been shelled five times since the start of the Hamas-Israeli war in October 2023, according to the UN. 12 thousand Palestinian refugees live in the camp.
"What is happening in Gaza is completely unacceptable... These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law must stop now," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded.
Israelʼs position
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the IDF "struck the terrorists with precision" at their command center, which used to be a school in Nuseirat.
When information about the deaths of UNRWA personnel emerged, IDF requested the Agency to provide the details and names of these personnel in order to verify the data.
"This is another example of the systematic abuses of the terrorist organization Hamas in relation to civilian infrastructure and violations of international law. IDF will continue the operation against Hamas to protect the citizens of Israel," the spokesman emphasized.
Israelʼs ambassador to the UN Danny Danon criticized Secretary-General Guterres.
"What is ʼunacceptableʼ is that you — Antonio Guterres — refuse to acknowledge reality and continue to distort it... It is unacceptable that the UN continues to condemn Israel in its just war against terrorists, while Hamas continues to use women and children as a human shield," he wrote.
The war between Israel and Hamas
The new escalation of the war has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched a massive rocket attack on southern and central Israel, invaded the countryʼs territory and killed 1 195 civilians.
More than 1 200 people became victims of that attack, and more than 250 were taken hostage and taken to Gaza. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip, which killed about 300 IDF soldiers.
Hamas claims that more than 40 000 Gazan citizens died during the Israeli operation, and hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes. It is impossible to confirm these data, especially regarding the dead. Hamas does not separate civilians and fighters in its statistics.
- In Israel, on September 1, almost 500 000 demonstrators took to the streets of various cities — these are the largest protests in the last 18 months. The Israelis demand a ceasefire, a truce with Hamas and the return of prisoners home. The protests are still going on.