“This is the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident,” UNRWA he said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Among the victims were the shelter manager and other UNRWA team members.
Killings ‘completely unacceptable’: Guterres
UN Secretary-General António Guterres regretted the incident.
“What is happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable. A school that has been converted into a shelter for around 12,000 people was hit again today by Israeli airstrikes. Six of our UNRWA colleagues are among the dead,” he said. wrote on X.
“These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law must stop now.”
No target
The UNRWA school in Nuseirat, located in the Central Area of the Gaza Strip, provided shelter to displaced people, mainly women and children.
It was the fifth time the city was hit since the conflict began 11 months ago.
Earlier on Wednesday, the UN reported that the site had already been dismantled by Israeli forces.
UNRWA called on all parties to the conflict never to use schools and the areas surrounding them for military or combat purposes.
“No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared. Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not targets,” the tweet read.
‘Endless and senseless killing’
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini deplored the “endless and senseless killing, day in and day out” in Gaza.
Write on XAccording to him, at least 220 agency employees have been killed since the beginning of the war.
“Humanitarian staff, facilities and operations have been shamelessly and unabatedly ignored since the beginning of the war,” he said, warning that “the longer impunity continues, the more international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions will become irrelevant.”
UN News
Om Samir, a mother from Gaza City, with her children at a UNRWA school where the polio vaccination campaign is being carried out.
Polio campaign continues
In addition, the UN said health workers are continuing to vaccinate young children in northern Gaza against polio, part of a broader campaign to combat the disease, which can cause paralysis.
More than 81,600 boys and girls were vaccinated on Tuesday, according to preliminary data from the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
In June, polio was detected in Gaza. This month, UN agencies and partners launched a two-day campaign to give more than 640,000 children two doses of the new oral polio vaccine type 2.
So far, nearly 528,000 children have been reached in the first round.
“More than 230 teams are on the ground to reach all children under 10 with the first round of polio vaccinations,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in New York, adding that “they need to do this again in four weeks.”
Health system in ruins
The campaign comes as Gaza’s health care system remains in poor condition.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and partners said half of all essential medicines are unavailable in the enclave, while primary health centres are dealing with critically low insulin levels.
In addition, routine vaccinations to protect babies against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough have also almost been exhausted.
Military operation in the West Bank
The UN and partners also continue to support Palestinian civilians in the West Bank affected by the 10-day Israeli security operation in Jenin and Tulkarm, as well as in neighboring refugee camps.
This includes the provision of food and water, with OCHA coordinating efforts to provide additional assistance.
Over the weekend, the office, together with UNRWA and other humanitarian partners, began assessing the needs of Palestinians affected by the operation.
Damage and displacement
More than 620 people, more than a third of them children, remain displaced and some 2,400 housing units have been damaged, with more than 100 rendered uninhabitable.
During the operation, more than 2.6 kilometers of water and sewage networks in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps were destroyed, severely hampering the delivery of essential services.
As a result, more than 33,000 residents have experienced water outages and sewage flooding over the past two weeks.
