UNRWA: Israel has attacked its facilities 453 times since October

The news appeared in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)’s latest update on Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and was reported on the same day that Israel attacked the agency’s headquarters in Gaza City.

According to UNRWA, Israel has carried out a total of 453 attacks on its facilities “and the people inside” since October, while at least 524 people have been killed in attacks on schools run by the agency.

“UN structures, schools and shelters are not targets,” UNRWA said in a social media post.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its recent attack on UNRWA headquarters was aimed at defeating members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were using the building for military operations.

Earlier this year, Israeli officials claimed without evidence that a dozen of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year. The allegation prompted countries including the United States, Germany and Canada to cut off financial support to the donor-funded organization, which is the largest employer in Gaza and a provider of education and public services to Palestinians there.

The suspension of funding to UNRWA, which has been lifted by all donor countries except the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, has been cited as a cause for the worsening famine among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s head, said on Wednesday that four schools had been attacked by Israel in the past four days, including at least two run by the UN.

“Since the war began, two-thirds of UNRWA schools in Gaza have been hit, some bombed out, many badly damaged,” said Lazzarini. “Schools have gone from being safe places of education and hope for children to overcrowded emergency shelters, often ending up in a place of death and misery… The blatant disregard for international humanitarian law must not become the new normal.”

On Monday, several people were injured in an Israeli attack on a UNRWA-run school in Nuseirat. Last Saturday, at least 16 Palestinians were killed and 50 injured while seeking shelter at the al-Jawni school in Nuseirat. The school was sheltering 2,000 people when Israeli forces stormed the facility.

“We ran here to see the target area,” said an eyewitness named Ayman al-Atouneh Reuters“We saw dismembered children’s bodies. This is a playground. There was a trampoline here. There were swings and vendors. Civilians were killed. It is a civilian school. These are United Nations schools, for UNRWA. They are supposed to be safe for people and should not be the target of attacks at any time.”

According to UNRWA, at least 197 of its staff have been killed since October 7. Among them were three who were working as security guards at an aid distribution center in central Gaza on July 5 when a rocket hit the center.

“This must stop,” the agency said. “Ceasefire now, before we lose what is left of our common humanity.”