Dozens killed in Israeli air strikes on UN school and homes in Gaza

Israeli air strikes across Gaza hit a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinian families as well as two homes, killing at least 34 people, including 19 women and children, hospital officials said.

The deadliest strike came on Wednesday afternoon, targeting the UN’s Al-Jaouni Preparatory Boys School in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli military claimed it was targeting Hamas militants planning attacks from inside the school.

At least 14 dead from the strike, including two children and a woman, were brought to Awda and al-Aqsa Martyrs hospitals nearby, officials from the facilities said. At least 18 people were wounded in the strike, they said.

One of the children killed was the daughter of Momin Selmi, a member of Gaza’s civil defence agency, which works rescuing wounded people after strikes

Mr Selmi had not seen his daughter for 10 months since he remained in north Gaza to keep working while his family fled south, the agency said.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders are living in Gaza’s schools. The al-Jaouni school, one of many in Gaza run by the UN agency for Palestinians (UNWRA) has been hit by multiple strikes over the course of the war.

Israel frequently bombs schools, saying they are being used by Hamas militants. It blames Hamas for civilian casualties from its strikes, saying its fighters base themselves and operate within dense residential neighbourhoods.

More than 90% of Gaza’s school buildings have been severely or partially damaged in strikes, and more than half the schools housing displaced people have been hit, according to a survey in July by the Education Cluster, a collection of aid groups led by Unicef and Save the Children.

Israel’s 11-month-old campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,084 Palestinians and wounded another 95,029, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Israel launched its campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an Israeli strike killed five people in the northern town of Tubas, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The military said it was targeting a group of militants. The ministry did not specify whether the dead were militants or civilians.

Israel has stepped up its military raids across the West Bank, saying it is working to dismantle militant groups and prevent attacks. Palestinians say such operations are aimed at cementing Israel’s seemingly open-ended military rule over the territory.

A driver crashed a fuel truck into a bus stop in the central West Bank, injuring one person in what the Israeli military said was an attack targeting troops operating there.

Officials said that soldiers and an armed civilian had “neutralised” the attacker but it was not immediately clear whether that meant he had been killed.

Earlier on Wednesday, a strike hit a home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters from the same family ranging in age from 21 months to 21 years old, according to the European Hospital, which received the casualties.

A strike late on Tuesday on a home in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The civil defence said the home belonged to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at the al-Quds Open University, who survived the strike.

The Israeli military said two soldiers died and seven were injured when their helicopter crashed in the southern Gaza Strip as they evacuated wounded troops.

It said the overnight crash was not the result of enemy fire and is under investigation. There have been 340 Israeli soldiers killed since the ground operation began in Gaza in late October, at least 50 of whom died in accidents, according to the military.