GAZA STRIP (AFP) - Israel faced international condemnation on Thursday (Sep 12) after a strike killed 18 people at a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in war-torn Gaza, where the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.
The attack flattened part of the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in Nuseirat on Wednesday, leaving only a charred heap of rebar and concrete.
"For the fifth time, Israeli forces bombed the UNRWA-run Al-Jawni School, killing 18 citizens," Gaza civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal wrote on Telegram, referring to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA later said six of its staff had been killed in two Israeli strikes on the school and its surroundings, calling it the highest death toll among its team in a single incident.
"Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people," it said on X. "Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target."
The Israeli military said it had conducted a "precise strike" on Hamas militants within the school grounds. It did not elaborate on the outcome, but said "numerous steps" were taken to reduce the risk to civilians.
UN chief Antonio Guterres branded the strike "totally unacceptable".
His condemnation was echoed by Israeli ally Germany, which said "humanitarian aid workers must never be victims of rockets".
Jordan and the European Union also criticised the attack, while Israel's main backer the United States called on it to protect humanitarian sites.
EU OUTRAGE
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was "outraged" by the deaths and that the strikes showed a "disregard of the basic principles" of international humanitarian law.
US Secretary of State Blinken said: "We need to see humanitarian sites protected, and that's something that we continue to raise with Israel".
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said UNRWA had not provided the names of its killed workers, "despite repeated requests".
He said a military inquiry found that "a significant number of the names (of the dead) that have appeared in the media and on social networks are Hamas terrorist operatives".
In response, UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma said the agency was "not aware of any such requests", that it provided Israel each year with a list of its staff and that it "called repeatedly" on Israel and Palestinian militants "to never use civilian facilities for military or fighting purposes".
She said the agency was "not in a position to determine" if the school had been used by Hamas for military purposes, but UNRWA had "repeatedly called for independent investigations" into "these very serious claims".
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the school was "no longer a school" and had become "a legitimate target" as it was used by Hamas to launch attacks.
UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid into Gaza, has been in crisis since Israel accused a dozen of its 30,000 employees of being involved in the Oct 7 Hamas attacks that sparked the war.
The UN immediately fired the implicated staff members, and a probe found some "neutrality related issues" but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.
"GOING THROUGH HELL"
Survivors of the strike scrambled to recover bodies and belongings from the rubble, saying they had to step over "shredded limbs".
"I can hardly stand up," a man holding a plastic bag of human remains told AFP.
"We've been going through hell for 340 days now, what we've seen over these days, we haven't even seen it in Hollywood movies, now we're seeing it in Gaza."
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said after the school strike that at least 220 members of the agency's staff had been killed in the war.
"Endless & senseless killing, day after day," he posted on X.
"Humanitarian staff, premises & operations have been blatantly & unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war."
Across Gaza, many school buildings have been repurposed to shelter displaced families, with the vast majority of the territory's 2.4 million people repeatedly uprooted by the war.
NO TRUCE BREAKTHROUGH
In Gaza City, civil defence spokesman Bassal said two strikes in the Zeitun neighbourhood killed seven people - including two children.
Later, he said two people were killed in the Jabalia camp. Medical sources said five people were killed in strikes on the Khan Younis area.
The bloodshed shows no signs of abating despite months of ceasefire negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
A Hamas delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday, the Palestinian Islamists said, though there was no indication of a breakthrough.
The Oct 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Among the dead included in that count were hostages killed in captivity.
Israel's retaliation has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.