“A new day. A new month. A new school hit,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWAthe largest aid agency in Gaza, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after a school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, was “hit by Israeli forces” on Saturday. It was home to nearly 2,000 people forcibly displaced by the hostilities, the UNRWA The Commissioner General said dozens of casualties had been reported.
The development comes as talks on a ceasefire and hostage release are reportedly set to resume in the coming days. Repeated previous attempts to make progress have failed despite sustained international pressure from member states with influence on both sides.
Success in this week’s negotiations will depend on Hamas’s call for a definitive end to the fighting and the heavy Israeli airstrikes that have leveled large parts of the enclave, as well as the Israeli government’s stated goal of destroying Hamas’s military capabilities after the group attacked multiple targets in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,250 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
According to Gaza health authorities, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed so far. The latest figures from UNRWA show that at least 520 people living in the UN agency’s shelters have been killed and at least 1,602 wounded since the war began.
In a regular situation update, the UN Relief and Works Agency reports, OCHA, reported that up to 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced by the war, including some who have been displaced “nine or 10 times.” Previous estimates were 1.7 million, but this was before the Israeli operation in Rafah in early May, which led to additional displacements from Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip.
The renewed push to end the war comes amid daily gun battles between Lebanese militants Israel and Hezbollah, a key Hamas ally. On Sunday, the Lebanon-based group claimed responsibility for a reported drone strike on Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Hezbollah says it will not cease operations until the war is over.
More updates to come..//
