Shafaqna India: Israeli forces have bombed another school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 18 people, including six staff members from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
According to witnesses, Wednesday’s attack on al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp left women and children torn to pieces. UNRWA stated that the death toll among its staff members marked the “highest in a single incident” in the 11-month conflict.
Around 12,000 displaced Palestinians, mostly women and children, were sheltering in al-Jaouni at the time of the two airstrikes, according to UNRWA. The shelter, managed by the UN, had been hit for the fifth time since the conflict began in October of last year. UNRWA declared on social media, “No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared.”
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from the site that there was significant destruction at the school, with the smell of blood in the air. “We can see huge holes in the walls, and people are searching for anything they can salvage after the destruction of this UN-run shelter,” he said. “The scale of destruction is unprecedented; piles of rubble and dirt cover the entire area.” Abu Azzoum added that the school was struck while people were waiting for food, and emergency workers were digging through the rubble with their bare hands due to a lack of equipment.
One survivor recounted losing all six of her children in the attack. “Are these children terrorists? May God punish them. The Israelis destroyed our home, killed, and starved our people; women are widowed, and children orphaned,” she told Al Jazeera.
Another survivor stated that the section of the school that was hit was “dedicated only to women” and described the aftermath as “women and children blown to pieces.” He added, “This is the fifth time the school building has been pounded by Israeli warplanes. It is supposed to be a safe sheltering area.”
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, claiming it targeted a Hamas command and control center located in the compound, which they alleged was used for planning and carrying out attacks against Israeli forces and Israel.
Al-Jaouni is the sixth school to be targeted by Israeli forces since August 1, with tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders sheltering in Gaza’s schools. Previous attacks on schools have resulted in significant casualties, including 15 killed at the Dalal al-Mughrabi school on August 1, 16 at Hamama school on August 3, 30 at Nassr and Hassan Salama schools on August 4, 17 at Abdul Fattah Hamouda and az-Zahra schools on August 8, and more than 100 killed at al-Tabin school on August 10.
William Deere, director of UNRWA’s Washington Office, condemned the targeting of 190 UN-run facilities throughout the war, despite the agency sharing their GPS coordinates with the Israeli military. Mourning the loss of his colleagues, Deere said, “Six colleagues lost today brings the death toll among UNRWA staff in this conflict to 220, the highest ever in United Nations history.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the lack of accountability for the killings of humanitarian workers in Gaza and called for effective investigations. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued their assault elsewhere in Gaza, including an attack on a home in Khan Younis that killed at least 11 people, including six siblings aged between 21 months and 21 years. Israeli jets also struck a group waiting outside a bakery in Gaza City, killing three and wounding seven, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.