At least 18 killed in Israeli attack on UN-run school sheltering displaced Gazans

GAZA CITY, Palestine 

The death toll rose to 18 in an Israeli bombing Wednesday of a UN-run school housing displaced civilians in the central Gaza Strip, with several injured, according to Gaza’s Media Office.

Six members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) were among those killed, marking the highest death toll among its staff in a single incident, the agency announced on X. Among the victims were the manager of a UNRWA shelter and team members assisting displaced people.

The Gaza Civil Defense said several women and children were also among the victims in the attack, which targeted al-Jaouni School in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The attack was the fifth by the Israeli army against the school since Oct. 7 last year amid Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, it said.

The school shelters more than 5,000 displaced civilians, according to authorities.

“It is the 47th massacre to have been committed by the Israeli army during its war of genocide in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where over 250,000 people live,” the media office said.

It said more than 18 schools and shelter centers have been attacked by the army in the Nuseirat refugee camp since Oct. 7.

Israel has systematically targeted civilian facilities, including schools, hospitals and places of worship, amid its offensive against Gaza.

Targeting such facilities can constitute a war crime under the rules of war.

Last month, at least 100 people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike on Al-Taba’een School in Gaza City, where more than 6,000 displaced people have sheltered.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border incursion last October by the Palestinian group Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 41,100 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and more than 95,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala