Dozens of civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a U.N. Agency for Palestine Refugee (UNRWA) school in central Gaza, Palestinian medics and the militant group Hamas said, a claim Israel denies.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health authority said at least 30 people were killed in the attack on Wednesday evening and most of the victims were women and children. Hamas said 40 people were killed.
Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said Israel had no knowledge of possible civilian causes.
Twenty to 30 members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were believed to be in three classrooms of the school building in the Nuseirat refugee district, he said.
Initial findings showed that many of them had been killed in the attack, Lerner said.
The school had been under surveillance in recent days and the attack had been postponed twice to avoid civilian casualties, the army spokesman added.
Palestinians said civilians fleeing the war from other parts of Gaza had taken refuge in the building. Hamas spoke of a “cruel massacre” of displaced Palestinians.
However, Lerner said there had been no internally displaced persons in the area attacked by Israel.
It was impossible to independently verify the parties’ figures and allegations.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) previously said militants who took part in the October 7 massacre in Israel targeted the UNRWA school.
Internally displaced Gazans have often sought refuge in UN school buildings since the war began, hoping that Israel will not target UN buildings.
“Another horrific day in Gaza,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote of X. “The school housed 6,000 displaced people when it was hit. Claims that armed groups may have been in the hideout are shocking. However, we are unable to verify these claims. .”
Since the start of the Gaza war, more than 180 UNRWA buildings have been hit, killing more than 450 displaced people, Lazzarini said.
According to the Israeli military, this is the fifth known case in a month in which Hamas and PIJ terrorists have misused UNRWA facilities for their own purposes.
Lerner said militants feel “relatively safe” in these buildings, which was “extremely worrying” for the Israeli military.
Israel accuses Hamas of operating from civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and mosques, endangering bystanders or deliberately using them as shields.
On Tuesday, the army said it used drones to attack another UNRWA school in nearby al-Bureij, saying Hamas militants had planned numerous attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers from there.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the Israeli army said it had killed three armed suspects who tried to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Soldiers in the southeastern Gaza Strip initially discovered suspicious movements there on Wednesday evening, a military spokesman said. Ground troops were then sent to the area around the Kerem Shalom border crossing and came under fire.
Two of the suspects were killed by Israel from the air and a third was killed a short time later by tank fire. According to the army, an Israeli soldier was also killed in the battle.
Three Palestinians have been killed in clashes between Israeli soldiers and militants in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Several other Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday.
According to the Israeli army, soldiers have arrested a wanted Palestinian. Militants then fired at them, who brought the troops back. During the battle they received support from an attack helicopter. Several armed Palestinians were killed, the report said.
Palestinian media reported, citing witnesses, that members of an undercover Israeli special forces unit had initially entered Jenin to arrest someone. Militants opened fire on the Israelis, prompting more troops to enter the city and skirmish with the militants.
Jenin is considered a stronghold of Palestinian extremists.
Since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip on October 7, the situation in the entire West Bank has again deteriorated significantly.
Since then, 509 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed during Israeli military operations, clashes or their own attacks, according to the Health Ministry. There has also been an increase in settler violence against Palestinians.
Meanwhile, violence resumed at the Lebanon-Israel border on Thursday.
On the Lebanese side, at least one fighter from the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah was killed in Aitaroun, near the border with Israel, local media reported. Another fighter was also injured.
The Israeli army said it had attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in the area.
Hezbollah again claimed multiple attacks on targets in northern Israel on Thursday.
The situation at the Israel-Lebanon border has deteriorated significantly recently. The Israeli army said a soldier was killed in a drone strike from Lebanon on Wednesday.
A drone loaded with explosives went off without first activating an air raid siren. In addition, several people were injured. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack.
