The UN says an Israeli air strike killed six of its staff

The UN refugee agency for Palestine (Unrwa) says six of its staff members were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in the center of Gaza.

The Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defense Center said 18 people were killed in Wednesday’s strike at the al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which is used as a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians.

The Israeli army said it had carried out a “direct strike against terrorists” planning to attack the school, and had taken measures to avoid civilian casualties.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the strike, saying: “What is happening in Gaza is completely unacceptable.

“This shocking violation of international humanitarian law must stop now,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Unrwa said the attack marked “the highest number of casualties among our personnel in a single incident” since hostilities between Israel and Hamas began in October.

It also mentioned that this is the fifth time this school has been hit in the past 11 months.

In July, It is reported that 16 people died in the strike The Israeli army said it targeted several groups at a school used by Hamas fighters.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, condemned Guterres’ criticism.

“It is absurd that the UN continues to criticize Israel in its rightful war against terrorists, while Hamas continues to use women and children as human shields,” he said.

Hamas – designated a terrorist group by Israel, the UK and other countries – has denied using schools and other public spaces for military purposes.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas following the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 41,080 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the area.

Video of the aftermath of Wednesday’s strike showed hundreds of people inspecting the destroyed floor of one wing of the al-Jaouni school, as well as the remains of an adjacent building that appeared to have been destroyed.

Other images show ambulances bringing injured men, women and children who were said to have been injured in the strike at al-Aqsa hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah.

Survivors said they had to step on “broken limbs” as they waded through the debris.

“I can’t even stand up,” one man told AFP news agency.

“We have been through hell for 340 days now. What we have seen these days, we did not see in Hollywood movies, now we see it in Gaza.”

The spokesperson of the Department of Public Protection, Mahmoud Bassal, said on Wednesday night that 18 people died, including Unrwa workers, children and women, while another 18 were injured.

A Telegram message from this organization identified one of those killed as the daughter of one of its rescuers, Momin Salmi. It says that he had not seen Shadia for ten months because he was living in the north of Gaza while his wife and their eight children fled to the south.

The BBC could not independently confirm the death toll, but a medical source at al-Awda hospital in the Nuseirat camp told AFP that 15 people died in the strike and were brought there and al-Aqsa hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the plane “conducted a direct strike against terrorists operating inside the Hamas control center” that entered the al-Jaouni school.

“A number of measures have been taken to reduce the risk of harming civilians, including the use of direct weapons, aerial surveillance and increased intelligence,” it added.

“This is another example of the terrorist organization Hamas’s abuse of human infrastructure in violation of international law.”

The government press office in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, accused Israel of “brutal killings”.

Later, Unrwa said in a statement that two airstrikes hit the school and its surroundings, which is home to about 12,000 people who have left their homes, mainly women and children.

“The dead include the manager of the Unrwa shelter and other members of the team that provide assistance to people who have been deported,” he said.

The agency stressed that “schools and other public infrastructure must be protected at all times”, adding: “They are not targets.”

“We call on all parties to the conflict to never use schools or their surrounding areas for military purposes or to fight.”

A few hours before the incident, Unrwa said in a report that almost 70% of its schools in Gaza had been attacked during the war.

It also reported that 214 of its employees were killed, as well as about 563 people who had taken refuge in its schools and other places.

Israel has previously accused UNRWA of supporting Hamas.

The center has denied this, however The UN said in August it expelled nine of the 13,000 UNRWA staff in Gaza after investigators found evidence that they may have been involved in the October 7 attack.. Another 10 workers were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

Israel has also alleged that hundreds of UNRWA workers were members of terrorist groups, but a UN review published in April found that Israel had not provided evidence for its claims.

In another incident on Wednesday, the IDF announced that two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight were injured in a helicopter crash overnight in southern Gaza.

The helicopter was on a mission to transport a seriously injured soldier to a hospital for medical treatment and crashed while landing in the Rafah area, the statement said.

“The initial investigation indicates that the accident was not caused by enemy fire. The cause of the accident is still being investigated,” he added.