After nine months of war in the Gaza Strip, another UN school falls victim to an Israeli air strike

“Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the largest aid agency in Gaza, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after a school in Nuseirat in central Gaza was “hit by Israeli forces” on Saturday. It was home to nearly 2,000 people forcibly displaced by the hostilities, the UNRWA commissioner-general said, adding that dozens of casualties had been reported.

The development came as talks on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages were reportedly set to resume in the next few days. Previous efforts to make progress have failed despite sustained international pressure from influential member states on both sides.

The success of this week’s talks will depend on meeting Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to fighting and the intense Israeli air strikes that have leveled large parts of the enclave, as well as the Israeli government’s stated war aim of destroying Hamas’ military strength after the group attacked several targets in southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,250 people and taking more than 250 hostages.

To date, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, according to health authorities in the Gaza Strip, and according to the latest data from the UNRWA relief agency, at least 520 people have been killed and at least 1,602 injured since the war began while seeking refuge in the UN agency’s emergency shelters.

In a regular update, the UN Office for International Development (OCHA) reported that up to 1.9 million people in Gaza had been displaced by the war, including some who had been left homeless “nine or ten times.” Previous estimates had been as high as 1.7 million, but that was before the Israeli operation in Rafah in early May, which led to further displacement from Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip.

The renewed push for an end to the war comes amid daily exchanges of fire between Lebanese militants, Israel and Hezbollah, a key Hamas ally. On Sunday, the Lebanon-based group claimed responsibility for a reported drone attack on Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Hezbollah has said it will not cease operations until the war in Gaza ends.

Further updates to follow..//