Rescue workers: Israeli attack on school kills government official in Gaza Strip

The civil defense in the Gaza Strip said at least four people were killed in an attack on Sunday on a school housing displaced Palestinians. It was the second such Israeli attack within two days.

The Israeli military, which has long accused Palestinian militants of using schools and other civilian infrastructure, confirmed the attack “in the area of ​​the school” in Gaza City.

A statement said the school complex was being used as a hideout by insurgents and housed “a Hamas weapons factory.”

According to the Civil Defense Authority, Ihab Al-Ghussein, the Gaza government’s deputy labor minister, was among the victims of the attack on the Holy Family School.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which owns the school, said hundreds of civilians have sought shelter there since the Gaza war began.

“The Latin Patriarchate strongly condemns attacks on civilians or any acts of war that do not ensure that civilians are kept away from the fighting,” the church said in a statement.

The attack came a day after a UN-run school in the central Nuseirat refugee camp was attacked. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 16 people were killed in the attack, and the United Nations condemned it.

Israel claimed that the attack also targeted militants hiding among the displaced people at the Al-Jawni school.

Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli allegations that militants are hiding in civilian infrastructure.

The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced by Israel’s war, now in its tenth month, and many have sought refuge in UN-run schools throughout the besieged territory.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) expressed outrage at the repeated attacks on its premises.

“A new day. A new month. A new school hit,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini on the social media platform X.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP that 190 – or more than half – of the agency’s facilities in Gaza have been hit since the war began in October, “some more than once”.

“When the war started, we closed the schools and they became emergency shelters,” she said.

As of Thursday, 194 UNRWA staff had been killed, Touma added.

Since then, the UN agency reported separately that two more people were killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday.

During the war, there were 450 “incidents” involving UNRWA buildings, Touma said. The damage was “unprecedented in the history of the UN.”

“Any attack on UN facilities is shocking and, in the case of this conflict, represents a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law,” she added.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 38,153 people have been killed in Israel’s war against Gaza.

A Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 left 1,195 people dead, according to a AFP Count based on Israeli figures.

Prisoners were also taken, of whom 116 are still in the Gaza Strip, including 42 who the military says are dead.