At least four dead in Israeli airstrike on UNRWA aid center in Gaza | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

The attack hit the main gate of the complex, which is used to distribute relief supplies and house displaced people.

At least four people were killed in an Israeli air strike near an aid center in the Gaza Strip, the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Sunday’s airstrike hit the main gate of the organization’s compound in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, wounding several Palestinians. The facility is used to distribute the little humanitarian aid that reaches Gaza.

Hundreds of people displaced by the Israeli military’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip were seeking shelter in the facility at the time of the incident.

A Palestinian woman at the scene told Al Jazeera that she saw many bodies and two of her children were injured in the attack.

“What have these innocent children done wrong? They are running towards death. Young men and women are being slaughtered by the Israelis,” she said.

Nowhere is safe in #Gaza.

Accordingly @GlobalEdCluster69% of school buildings where displaced families sought shelter were directly hit or damaged.

This blatant disregard for international humanitarian law must end. We need a #CeasefireNow. pic.twitter.com/izwPNeKOVC

— UNRWA-United Nations (@UNRWA) 23 June 2024

The attack came after a series of attacks across the city a day earlier, including on the Shati and Tufah camps, where displaced Palestinians in the north were supposed to seek refuge, as ordered by the Israeli military. At least 42 Palestinians were killed in those attacks.

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said on Saturday that at least 101 Palestinians had been killed and 169 injured in the past 24 hours.

This was the deadliest day since the June 8 massacre in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in which at least 274 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured in a daylight operation that led to the rescue of four Israeli prisoners.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli forces have killed 37,598 Palestinians and injured 86,032 others, including many children and women, in their devastating military offensive lasting more than eight months.

Israeli attacks on aid distribution centers and UN facilities continue despite condemnation by the international community and calls for an immediate ceasefire and increased aid deliveries to avert the deadly consequences of the blockade of Gaza’s supplies of food, fuel and medicine.

According to UNRWA, 445 attacks by the Israeli military have been reported since the war began, damaging 188 different UN facilities. At least 500 displaced Palestinians have been killed while seeking shelter in the facilities and 1,547 have been injured.

In addition, the Israeli military has killed 193 UN staff since October 7 – a new record.

Meanwhile, aid outside Gaza is piling up and rotting as complex Israeli military bureaucratic procedures and security risks inside the enclave prevent aid from reaching war-torn Palestinians.