Israeli attack on UNRWA school in central Gaza Strip kills dozens

At least 27 Gazans have been killed in an Israeli attack on an UNRWA school housing displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. 24 hours earlier, the densely populated refugee camps of Bureij and Maghazi and the neighbourhood of Deir al Bala were attacked, killing more than 70 people.

The Gaza government has assured that many of the victims were civilians taking refuge in the school and described the attack as a “horrific massacre” and a “crime that shames humanity”.

As usual, the Israeli army confirmed the attack, justifying that the Hamas compound was integrated in the school and that “terrorists who took part in the murderous attack against communities in southern Israel on October 7, who were gunned down, were hiding there.” The army assured that soldiers from both Hamas and Islamic Jihad worked in the compound and belonged to the Nukhba forces, an elite unit of Hamas, whose agents took part in the attack in Israel on October 7, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 were kidnapped.

According to the Gaza government, the attack also wounded dozens of people who were transferred to the Martyrs al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, which is already on the verge of collapse and has three times more patients than it can care for.

“The malfunction of one of the power generators at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital leads to the emergence of a humanitarian disaster, which could result in the death of dozens of wounded, sick and premature babies, and we call for urgent international intervention,” the Gaza ministry of health said, reporting that the hospital is the only one available to care for more than one million people in the center of the Strip.

Israel intensified its ground and air campaign in the centre of the Strip yesterday, taking “operational control” with attacks on the Bureij refugee camp and eastern Deir al-Balah, killing at least 75 people.

According to the ministry, the eight-month war left more than 36,580 dead and 83,000 injured, with nearly 10,000 people missing in the rubble.