UN says six Gaza workers killed in Israeli strike that left 14 dead, as IDF says 'precise' attack targeted terrorists
12 September 2024, 06:16 | Updated: 12 September 2024, 06:33
The UN has said six of its staff members in Gaza were killed by an Israeli strike that left 14 dead overall.
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The attack on a school in a refugee camp took "the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident", the UN refugee agency UNRWA said.
Hamas officials said that 14 people had been killed in the strike at the school, which was being run by the UNRWA.
The IDF said that the school was being used for planning attacks, and that they carried out a "precise strike on terrorists".
The Israeli military also said that it had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians from its strike.
The al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat refugee camp was being used to shelter some of the many people who have been displaced by the war.
Local man Hani Haniyeh lost his family during the strike.
He said: "The sound of an explosion shook the building. We went out running and saw body parts thrown everywhere in the shelter.
"Unfortunately, my children are still missing. Four of my children, I do not know where they are."
Some 16 people are said to have been killed in a separate strike on the school in July. Israel also said then that it was targeting terrorists. The school has been hit five times, according to the UNRWA.
Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted 11 months ago. It does not say how many were fighters and how many civilians.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack on Israel.
They abducted another 250, and are still holding around 100 of them after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong ceasefire last November.
Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a ceasefire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.
