Six UN staffers among 18 killed in Israeli strike

What's happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable: Guterres

FE Team | Published: September 12, 2024 21:31:14

GAZA, Sept 12 (BBC): The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) says six of its employees have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school it runs in central Gaza.
Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said a total of 18 people were killed in Wednesday's strike on al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat refugee camp, which is being used as a shelter by thousands of displaced Palestinians.
Israel's military said it carried out a "precise strike on terrorists" planning attacks from the school, and that it had taken measures to avoid harm to civilians.
UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the strike, saying: "What's happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable."
"These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Unrwa said the attack marked "the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident" since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October.
It also noted that it was the fifth time the school had been hit over the past 11 months.
In July, 16 people were reportedly killed in a strike which the Israeli military said had targeted several structures at the school used by Hamas fighters.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, hit out at Guterres' criticism.
"It is unconscionable that the UN continues to condemn Israel in its just war against terrorists, while Hamas continues to use women and children as human shields," he said.
Hamas - which is proscribed as a terrorist group by Israel, the UK and other countries - has denied using schools and other civilian sites for military purposes.
Israeli forces launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
More than 41,080 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
EPA People gather around a burnt out school, with what look like cans of food all over the floor, while searching for survivors after an Israeli strike at the al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, on 11 September 2024EPA
Israel's military said it had conducted a "precise air strike on terrorists" operating in the school
Video of the aftermath of Wednesday's strike showed hundreds of people inspecting the heavily damaged ground floor of one wing of al-Jaouni school, as well as the remains of an adjoining structure that appeared to have been destroyed.
Other footage showed ambulances bringing wounded men, women and children said to have been wounded in the strike to al-Aqsa hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah.
Survivors said they had to step over "shredded limbs" as they scrambled over the rubble.
"I can hardly stand up," one man holding a bag of human remains told AFP news agency.
"We've been going through hell for 340 days now. What we've seen over these days, we haven't even seen it in Hollywood movies, now we're seeing it in Gaza."
Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said on Wednesday night that 18 people were killed, including Unrwa staff members, children and women, and that 18 others were injured.