ISTANBUL

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Wednesday that its facilities in Gaza have been subjected to a staggering 453 Israeli attacks since last Oct. 7.

“Two-thirds of our schools in Gaza have been hit, with 524 people sheltering in our facilities killed,” the UN agency said in a statement.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Lazzarini called for an immediate cease-fire “before we lose what is left of our common humanity.”

“Schools have gone from safe places of education and hope for children to overcrowded shelters, often ending up a place of death and misery,” he said.

Lazzarini said four UN-run schools were hit in the past four days.

“Nine months in, under our watch, the relentless, endless killings, destruction and despair continue. Gaza is no place for children,” he added.

On Tuesday, at least 25 people were killed and 53 others injured in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Abasan town, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

It followed the killing of at least 16 people while dozens were injured in another Israeli attack on July 6 on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 38,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 88,200 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio