Aid trucks entering Gaza from Israel
Aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip after passing security checks last month. Trucks from Egypt entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. (Video: COGAT, via the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say an Israeli strike on Thursday morning killed Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants hiding in a UN school for displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, while local officials say the attack killed more than 30 people, including 23 women and children.
Israel said It targeted a Hamas compound inside the school where 20 to 30 fighters were present and several of them were killed.
Witnesses and hospital officials said the pre-dawn attack targeted al-Sardi School, which is run by the hospital’s superintendent. United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said the school was filled with Palestinians who had fled Israeli attacks and bombing in northern Gaza.
“Several Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who entered a school belonging to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) were killed,” the IDF wrote in a post sent to X.
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Palestinians watch the situation following an Israeli attack on a UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 6, 2024, which killed dozens. (AP Photo/Abdel Karim Hana)
“Indian Air Force fighter jets carried out precision strikes on a Hamas compound located inside a school in the Nusserat area. these terrorists They belonged to the Nukhba Forces and were involved in the October 7 massacre.”
Nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed in that attack, while about 240 were taken prisoner, after which Israel has launched an offensive against Hamas and its allies.
The IDF said a number of steps were taken ahead of Thursday’s attack to minimize the risk of harm to non-engaged civilians during the attack, “including aerial surveillance and additional intelligence gathering.”
The post was accompanied by aerial photographs showing rooms on the building’s two upper floors, which the IDF said were “terrorists’ hideouts”.
“We have full confidence in the intelligence,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a briefing with reporters. He accused Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters of deliberately using UN facilities as operational bases.
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Palestinians mourn relatives killed in an Israeli attack on a UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, outside a hospital in Deir al-Balah, the Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Karim Hana)
He said there were between 20 and 30 fighters in the compound and that several of them had been killed, but he did not have precise details because intelligence assessments were still being conducted. “I am not aware of any civilian casualties, and I would be very cautious in accepting anything Hamas says,” he said.
Ayman Rashid, who had taken refuge in the school after being displaced from Gaza City, said the missiles hit classrooms on the second and third floors where families were taking shelter. He said he helped evacuate five people, including an old man and two children, one of whom had his head blown off. “It was dark, there was no electricity and we had a lot of trouble getting the victims out,” Rashid said.
Footage showed bodies wrapped in blankets or plastic bags and placed in rows in the hospital courtyard.
Those injured in the school attack were admitted to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah.
The Associated Press reported that at least 33 people were killed in the strike, including 14 children and nine women, based on hospital records and its reporter present at the hospital.
UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told Reuters the building may have been attacked multiple times. Touma and a medical source told the news outlet that 40 people had been killed, including 14 children and nine women.
According to reports, six people were killed in an attack on a house at night. Both attacks took place in Nuseirat.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announced a new military operation in central Gaza.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) schools in Gaza have served as shelters since the start of the war, which saw most of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinian population driven from their homes.
Israel announced a new military operation in central Gaza on Wednesday as it battles fighters relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics. It said fighting would not stop during ceasefire talks, which have intensified since President Biden outlined a proposal on Friday.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that the Jewish state is “ready for very intense action in the north” in response to continued rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal as well as the Associated Press and Reuters also contributed to this report.
