Israeli airstrike kills eight people in Gaza aid center, witnesses say

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) – Eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday on a training facility near Gaza City used to distribute aid, Palestinian witnesses said, as Israeli tanks continued to advance into the southern town of Rafah.

The attack hit parts of a vocational school run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA), which is currently providing assistance to displaced families, the witnesses said.

“Some people came to collect vouchers, others had been displaced from their homes and were seeking shelter here. Some were filling up water, others were receiving vouchers, and suddenly we heard something falling. We ran away and those carrying water let it spill,” said Mohammed Tafesh, one of the witnesses.

A Reuters photographer saw a completely destroyed low-rise building and bodies wrapped in blankets lying on the side of the road waiting to be taken away.

“We have recovered martyrs from the rubble, one who was selling cold drinks, one who was selling pastries and others who were distributing or receiving vouchers,” said Tafesh. “There are about four or five martyrs and 10 injured. Thank God the condition of the injured is good.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director, said the agency was reviewing the details of the reported attack before providing further information.

“Since the war began, we have found that nearly 190 of our buildings have been hit. That is the vast majority of our buildings in Gaza,” she said.

In total, 193 UNRWA team members were killed in the conflict, she said.

More than eight months after Israel began its war in the Hamas-administered Palestinian enclave, its advance is focused on the two areas its forces have not yet captured: Rafah at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip and the area around Deir al-Balah in the center.

The Israeli ground and air offensive in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the incursion of Hamas-led militants into southern Israel on October 7. According to Israeli sources, they killed around 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages.

The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, with Palestinian health authorities saying nearly 37,600 people have been killed and almost the entire population has been left homeless and destitute.

ISRAELI TANKS APPROACH RAFA’S MAWASI CAMP

Residents said Israeli tanks had advanced to the edge of the Mawasi refugee camp in northwest Rafah in heavy fighting with Hamas-led fighters, part of an advance into western and northern Rafah in which they had blown up dozens of homes in recent days.

Images of two Israeli tanks stationed on a hilltop overlooking the coastal region went viral on social media, but Reuters could not independently verify them.

“The fighting with the resistance was fierce. The occupying forces now control the Mawasi area, forcing families there to move to Khan Younis,” a resident who wished to remain anonymous said on a chat app.

The Israeli military said it continued to conduct “intelligence-based targeted operations” in the Rafah area, locating weapons caches and tunnel shafts and killing Palestinian gunmen.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in Rafah with anti-tank missiles and mortar shells, as well as planted explosive devices.

In another attack, two people were killed in Nuseirat in central Gaza.

Palestinian health officials said on Saturday that at least 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in some northern districts of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said it had attacked Hamas’ military infrastructure there. Hamas said the targets were civilians.

In Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, health officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital said two babies had died of malnutrition, bringing the number of children who have died of malnutrition or dehydration since October 7 to at least 31. Health officials, however, say the number is an undercount.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Mahmoud Issa in Gaza; editing by Kevin Liffey)