A Palestinian woman reacts after the Israeli military bombardment of the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) run Abu Araban school, turned shelter, where internally displaced Palestinians are living, in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on July 14, 2024. AFP
The latest Israeli attack hit a UN-run school housing a large number of displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat camp, with local sources reporting that at least 12 were killed, according to WAFA.
Schools in Nuseirat were the target for two of the earlier school strikes, part of Israel's ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure that shelters Palestinians displaced by the Israel's war on Gaza.
Some wounded, including children, were taken to nearby hospitals, residents said, noting that most of the casualties were children and women.
Neither the health ministry nor hospitals in Gaza were able to give a precise toll.
AFPTV images showed the three-storey complex still standing, with clothes and bedding airing out over its railings. A wall bearing the UN logo had been blown out, and rooms inside were damaged.
On July 6, Israeli aircraft hit Al-Jawni school, also run by the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), in Nuseirat. UNRWA said about 2,000 people were sheltering there at the time.
The following day, four people were killed in a strike on the church-run Holy Family school in Gaza City, in the territory's north, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.
On Monday, Israel hit another Nuseirat school, claiming it was targeting "terrorists".
The next day, a hospital source said at least 29 people died in an Israeli strike at the entrance to Al-Awda school in the Khan Younis area, southern Gaza.
France and Germany on Wednesday called for an investigation into the school strikes.
After the Al-Jawni strike, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma told AFP that when the war began "we closed the schools and they became shelters."
UNRWA is the main relief agency in Gaza but more than half, or 190, of its facilities have been hit -- "some more than once" -- in Israel's war on Gaza, she said.
Israel's relentless bombardment and ground invasion has killed at least 38,584 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.
An analysis published by The Lancet medical journal, says the actual Palestinian death toll in Gaza could exceed 186,000 people.
The nine-month assault has also wounded more than 88,881 Palestinians, while an Israeli siege has pushed more than half a million to the brink of starvation.
Short link: