Israeli attack on schools housing displaced people from Gaza kills 4, second attack in 2 days

Gaza:

The civil defense agency in Hamas-controlled Gaza said an attack Sunday on a school housing displaced Palestinians killed at least four people, the second Israeli attack of its kind in two days.

The Israeli military, which has long accused Palestinian agents of using schools and other civilian infrastructure, confirmed the attack “in the school area” in Gaza City.

It said in a statement that the school complex was used as a hideout and housed “a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility.”

The civil defense agency said Ihab al-Ghusain, deputy minister of labor in the Hamas government, was among those killed in the attack on the Sagrada Familia school.

The attack came a day after a UN-run school in the central Nuseirat refugee camp was hit, in an attack that Gaza’s Health Ministry said killed 16 people and drew condemnation from the United Nations. Israel said militants were hiding there.

Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations that militants were hiding in civilian infrastructure.

The vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, now in its tenth month, and many have taken refuge in UN-run schools across the besieged territory.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, expressed outrage at repeated attacks on its facilities.

“Another day. Another month. Another school coup,” said UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini on the X social media platform.

#Gaza
Another day.
Another month.
Another blow to the school.

Again, @UNRWA school hit by Israeli forces.
The school, in the intermediate areas, housed almost 2,000 internally displaced people, dozens of victims were reported.

Since the war began nine months ago:

-…

-Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 7, 2024

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP that 190 – or more than half – of the agency’s facilities in Gaza had been hit, “some more than once”, since the start of the war with Hamas’ attack on Israel. on October 7th.

“When the war started we closed the schools and they became shelters,” she said.

As of Thursday, 194 UNRWA workers had been killed, Touma added.

The UN agency has since separately reported that two others were killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday.

There were 450 “incidents” involving UNRWA buildings during the war, Touma said, claiming the damage was “unprecedented in the history of the UN.”

“Any attacks on UN facilities are shocking and there has been a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law in relation to this conflict,” he added.

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on Israeli figures.

Hamas also captured hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 who the military says are dead.

In response, Israel carried out a military offensive that killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the territory’s Ministry of Health.

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