At least 18 people, including United Nations staff, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a UN school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Wednesday, September 11, according to the Gaza Civil Defense and hospital officials.
The Palestinian authorities reported that at least 44 others were injured in the incident.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) stated on X (formerly Twitter) that six of its employees were “killed today when two airstrikes hit a school and its surroundings in Nuseirat,” marking “the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that the Israeli Air Force carried out “a precise strike on terrorists” allegedly operating within the school compound. The IDF claimed the school “was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute attacks against IDF troops and the state of Israel.”
The IDF emphasized that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians,” describing the situation as “another example of Hamas’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure, in violation of international law.”
The strike targeted the Al Jaouni UNRWA facility, which had not functioned as an active school since October. The UNRWA noted that an estimated 12,000 displaced people, including women and children, had been sheltering there.