Palestinians report dozens of people killed in Israeli attack on UN school

Dozens of civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in central Gaza, Palestinian medics and the militant Hamas group said. Israel denies the claim.

The Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza said that at least 30 people were killed in the attack on Wednesday evening and that most of the victims were women and children. Hamas spoke of 40 deaths.

Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said Israel had no knowledge of possible civilian casualties.

Twenty to thirty members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are said to have been in three classrooms of the school building in the refugee neighborhood of Nuseirat, he said.

According to initial findings, many of them were killed in the attack, Lerner said.

The school had been monitored in recent days and the attack had been postponed twice to avoid civilian casualties, the army spokesman added.

According to Palestinians, civilians fleeing the war from other parts of Gaza had sought refuge in the building. Hamas spoke of a “cruel massacre” of displaced Palestinians.

However, Lerner said there were no internally displaced people in the area attacked by Israel.

An independent verification of the figures and claims made by both sides was not possible.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had previously stated that the UNRWA school was targeted by militants involved in the October 7 massacre in Israel.

Internally displaced people from the Gaza Strip have often sought refuge in UN school buildings since the war began, hoping that Israel will not launch attacks on UN buildings.

“Another terrible day in Gaza,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. “The school was hosting 6,000 displaced people when it was hit. Claims that armed groups may have been in the shelter are shocking. However, we cannot verify these claims.”

Since the Gaza war began, more than 180 UNRWA buildings have been hit, killing more than 450 displaced people, Lazzarini said.

According to the Israeli army, this is the fifth known case within a month in which Hamas and PIJ terrorists have misused UNRWA facilities for their own purposes.

Lerner said the militants felt “relatively safe” in these buildings, which was “extremely worrying” for the Israeli military.

Israel accuses Hamas of operating from civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and mosques, thereby endangering innocent bystanders or deliberately using them as human shields.

On Tuesday, the army said it had used drones to attack another UNRWA school in nearby al-Bureij, from where Hamas fighters had planned numerous attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said it had killed three armed suspects who were trying to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Soldiers in the southeast of the Gaza Strip first discovered suspicious movements there on Wednesday evening, a military spokesman said. Ground troops were then sent near the Kerem Shalom border crossing and came under fire there.

Two of the suspects were killed by Israel from the air, a third died a short time later from tank fire. According to the military, an Israeli soldier was also killed in the fighting.

Three Palestinians were killed in clashes between Israeli soldiers and militants in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Several other Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Thursday.

According to the Israeli military, the soldiers arrested a wanted Palestinian. Militants then shot at him, which the troops responded to. During the battle, they received support from a combat helicopter. Several armed Palestinians were killed, it was said.

Palestinian media reported, citing witnesses, that members of an undercover Israeli special forces unit first entered Jenin to arrest someone. Militants then opened fire on the Israelis, after which more soldiers entered the city and engaged in skirmishes with the militants.

Jenin is considered a stronghold of Palestinian extremists.

Since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip on October 7, the situation throughout the West Bank has deteriorated significantly.

According to the Health Ministry, 509 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then in Israeli military operations, confrontations or attacks. There has also been an increase in violence by settlers against Palestinians.

Meanwhile, violence broke out again on the border between Lebanon and Israel on Thursday.

On the Lebanese side, at least one fighter from the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah was killed in Aitaroun near the border with Israel, local media reported. Another fighter was also injured.

The Israeli military said it had attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in the region.

Hezbollah again claimed responsibility for several attacks on targets in northern Israel on Thursday.

The situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border has recently worsened significantly. According to the Israeli army, a soldier was killed in a drone attack from Lebanon on Wednesday.

A drone loaded with explosives exploded without first triggering an air raid warning. Several people were also injured. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack.