Palestinian authorities said on Wednesday that at least 14 people were killed in an attack on a UN building in central Gaza.
Hospital staff reported that 14 people were killed in the incident at the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The building was a former school of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Six UNRWA staff are among the dead, the agency reported on social media platform X. “This is the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident.”
Among the dead were the manager of the UNRWA reception centre and other team members providing assistance to displaced people, the agency said.
“This school has been hit five times since the war began. About 12,000 displaced people live there, mostly women and children. No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared.”
Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, UNRWA wrote.
“They are not targets. We call on all parties to the conflict never to use schools or the areas surrounding them for military or combat purposes.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote on X that what happened in Gaza was “totally” unacceptable. “These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law must stop now.”
An Israeli air force spokesman said the strike in Nuseirat targeted a command and control post of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas. He said the attack was carried out after measures were taken to minimize the risk of harm to civilians.
Two Israeli soldiers killed in helicopter crash
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military reported that two soldiers were killed when a rescue helicopter crashed in the Gaza Strip overnight.
Seven others were injured and taken to a clinic for treatment.
The Israeli Air Force Yanshuf helicopter was on a mission to evacuate a wounded soldier to a hospital for medical treatment when it crashed while landing in the Rafah area of Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
An initial investigation found that the crash was not caused by enemy fire, the IDF said. The cause of the incident is still under investigation.
The families of the two IDF soldiers have been notified.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, 706 Israeli soldiers have been killed, according to military sources. Since the start of the ground offensive on October 27, some 340 have been killed, with more than 4,400 soldiers wounded.
The war began after the unprecedented massacre on October 7, when militants from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations invaded southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages to Gaza.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 98,000 others wounded since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health authority. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
