Israeli attack on UN school in Gaza leaves at least 34 dead

Deir Al-Balah. Israeli strikes overnight and on Wednesday hit a U.N. school housing displaced Palestinians and two homes, killing at least 34 people, including 19 women and children, hospital officials said.

The deadliest attack was on Wednesday afternoon against a UN school, the Al-Jaouni Preparatory School for Boys, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants plotting attacks from inside the school, located in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

At least 14 people killed in the attack, including two minors and a woman, were taken to Awda Hospital and al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, officials at the two facilities said. They added that at least 18 people were wounded in the attack.

One of the minors was the daughter of Momin Selmi, a member of the Gaza Civil Defense, the agency said in a statement. Selmi had not seen her daughter in 10 months, as she was in northern Gaza working while her family fled to the south, the agency said.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians forced to flee their homes by the Israeli offensive have sought refuge in Gaza’s schools.

The Al-Jaouni school, one of several run by the Palestinian-run UN agency, UNWRA, has been attacked several times during the war.

Israel frequently bombs schools, saying they are used by Hamas militants. It blames the Palestinian group for the casualties, saying its fighters attack and then hide among civilians.

More than 90 percent of Gaza’s schools have been totally or partially damaged in shelling, and more than half of schools hosting displaced people have been hit, according to a July study by the Education Cluster, a partnership of aid groups led by UNICEF and Save the Children.

The Gaza war has killed at least 41,084 Palestinians and wounded 95,029 others, according to the territory’s health ministry. Israel launched its offensive in response to a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 last year, in which the group killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250.

Hours earlier, a bombing hit a house in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, killing 11 people, including six siblings from the same family whose ages ranged from 21 months to 21 years, according to the European Hospital, which received the victims.

On Tuesday afternoon, a shelling in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and civil defense. The civil defense said the home belonged to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at Al-Quds Open University, who survived the attack.

In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli airstrike killed five people in the northern town of Tubas, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said it was targeting a group of militants and the ministry did not specify whether the dead were militants or civilians.

Israel has stepped up its operations in the West Bank, saying it is seeking to dismantle armed groups and prevent attacks. Palestinians say the operations are aimed at prolonging Israeli rule over the territory.

Earlier, a driver rammed his gasoline truck into a bus stop in the central West Bank, wounding one person, and the Israeli military said it was an attack on soldiers who were there. Officials said soldiers and an armed civilian “neutralized” the attacker, but it was not clear whether that meant the attacker was killed.

The Israeli military said two soldiers were killed and seven wounded when their helicopter crashed in the southern Gaza Strip while evacuating wounded soldiers. It said the crash was not caused by enemy fire and that the matter was being investigated. So far, 340 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the operation in Gaza began in late October, and at least 50 of them died in accidents, according to the military.