War in Gaza Strip: 16 dead in attack on UN school – Hamas

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said 16 people were killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday on a UN-run school where thousands of displaced people had sought shelter.

The Israeli military said its planes targeted “terrorists” operating around the Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, central Gaza.

The health ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, which condemned the attack as a “heinous massacre”, said 50 injured people had been taken to hospital from the school.

Around 7,000 people sought shelter in the school at the time of the attack, the Hamas government’s press office said. Dozens of people searched the rubble after the attack to find survivors.

The press office said that the school was run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and that most of the victims were “children, women and the elderly.”

The Israeli military said it had “attacked several terrorists operating in buildings in the area of ​​the UNRWA Al-Jawni school.”

“This location served as a hiding place and operational infrastructure from which attacks on IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip were directed and carried out,” it added. At the same time, it said that “steps were taken to reduce the risk of harm to the civilian population.”

UNRWA had previously announced that two of its staff had been killed during a strike in Al-Bureij, also in central Gaza. The aid organization operates a large food warehouse in the district.

Paramedics said 10 people, including three journalists, were killed in an attack on a house in Nuseirat.

“Absolutely no place in the Gaza Strip is safe,” said civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.

The war began with Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP news agency count based on Israeli figures.

The militants also took hostages, 116 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the military, 42 of them are dead.

In response, Israel launched a military offensive that, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, killed at least 38,098 people in Gaza, mostly civilians.