Israel’s war on Gaza : Deadly attack on UN school condemned
- Israel’s military has bombed the United Nations-operated al-Jaouni school in central Gaza for the fifth time since October, killing at least 18 people. Witnesses say “women and children were blown to pieces” in the assault.
- Six of the victims were UNRWA staff, including the shelter’s manager. The agency’s chief condemned the “endless and senseless killing” as the number of its staff killed since the start
- of the war rises to at least 220.
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Qatar calls for UN investigation into Israeli attack on UNRWA school
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has “strongly condemned” Israel’s bombing of the UNRWA-operated al-Jaouni school.
In a statement shared on X, the ministry called the attack a “horrific massacre” that confirms Israel’s “criminal approach and its disregard for the principles of international humanitarian law”.
“We reiterate the call for an urgent international investigation, including the dispatch of independent UN investigators to ascertain the facts regarding the occupation’s continuous targeting of schools and shelters for displaced persons,” said the ministry.
Palestine demands international protection after UN school strike
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned Israel’s strike on the al-Jaouni school in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, calling it a “horrific massacre”.
In a statement, it called on the international community to provide Palestinians international protection and stop the “war of extermination and displacement against our people”.
The ministry also called for UNRWA employees and other humanitarian workers to be protected from “the brutality of the occupation”.
Israeli air strike kills 2 in southern Syria: War monitor
An Israeli strike has hit a vehicle near the Syrian town of Khan Arnabah in the occupied Golan Heights, killing at least two people, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
AFP, citing a local security source, said “two charred bodies were removed” from the targeted vehicle.
The attack comes days after raids blamed on Israel killed 18 people in the central province of Hama, according to Syrian authorities.
The Syrian Observatory said those strikes killed 27 people, including six civilians, and targeted a “scientific research area” and other sites in the province’s Masyaf area.
Israel has not commented on any of the latest strikes in Syria.
Israel arrests 40 in latest West Bank raids
Israeli forces have detained 40 Palestinians in raids throughout the occupied West Bank since last night, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
Most of the arrests took place in the governorates of Hebron and Tubas. One of those detained was pulled from a hospital where he was being treated, said the society.
Since October 7, Israeli forces have made at least 10,700 arrests in the West Bank, the group added.
‘Carnage must stop,’ says WHO chief after Israeli attack on school
The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has condemned Israel’s strike on the al-Jaouni school in central Gaza, saying “the carnage in Gaza must stop”.
“No words can reflect the true horror and loss of life in Gaza,” he wrote on X. “Hospitals, schools and shelters have been repeatedly bombarded, resulting in deaths of civilians and humanitarians.”
Israel has killed 41,118 Palestinians since October 7: Health Ministry
Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 34 people and injured 96 over the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The ministry also reported that there are additional victims trapped in areas inaccessible to ambulances and civil defence crews.
The latest casualties bring the total number of people killed in the enclave since October 7 to 41,118, with 95,125 injured, the ministry added.
Four bodies recovered from central Rafah
Gaza’s civil defence say they have recovered the bodies of four people killed by Israeli bombardment in central Rafah’s Tal az-Zohour neighbourhood.
Their deaths follow our earlier report of three people being killed in Rafah’s Khirbet al-Adas area.
We will keep you updated as more information emerges.
‘Endless and senseless killing, day after day’ in Gaza: Lazzarini
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has condemned Israel’s bombing of the al-Jaouni school that killed six of its staff members, taking the number of UNRWA employees killed in Gaza to at least 220.
“Endless and senseless killing, day after day,” Lazzarini said in a statement. “Humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war.”
He called for a ceasefire and accountability saying, “The longer impunity prevails, the more international humanitarian law & the Geneva Conventions will become irrelevant.”
Jordan condemns attack on UN-run school
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement denouncing the Israeli attack on the UN-operated al-Jaouni school in central Gaza, which killed at least 18 people, including six UN staff.
“Israel’s continued violation of international law and international humanitarian law is a result of the absence of a strong and decisive international stance,” said a statement attributed to the ministry’s spokesman Sufyan Qudah.
The statement also called on the international community, in particular the UN Security Council, “to take immediate and decisive steps to stop these crimes against the Palestinian people”.
Israel’s al-Jaouni school attack the ‘result of total impunity’
The lack of accountability that Israel has faced following previous attacks has enabled the latest massacre to take place at the UN-operated al-Jaouni school in central Gaza, Abdullah Al-Arian, assistant professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar, has told Al Jazeera.
“This is the result of total impunity,” he said, referring to the strike. “We have become so desensitised to this level of atrocity [in] schools and hospitals that we forget that at the beginning this was considered something completely off limits.”
Al-Arian said Israel has been “testing the limits of what is acceptable” to the international community and escalating violence accordingly in Gaza.
“This is exactly how genocidal campaigns unfold,” he said.
Al-Arian added that the targeting of UNRWA facilities and staff was part of a broader attempt to delegitimise and criminalise the agency, which Israel sees as an obstacle to its goal of stripping Palestinians of their refugee status.
People bid farewell to relatives killed in school attack
The scene here at the hospital [in Deir el-Balah], where victims of the attack on the UN-operated al-Jaouni school have been taken, is quite chaotic. People are bidding farewell to their relatives pronounced dead at the hospital. One person who is in critical condition was pulled from the hospital just to say goodbye to family members killed in the attack. It was a heartbreaking scene.
This is not the first time we’ve seen UN-run evacuation centres attacked. These facilities are marked, their coordinates shared with the Israeli military. They are known to have turned into shelters for displaced families. But the UN’s blue and white colours on the shelters is not protecting the people inside.
Qatar calls for UN investigation into Israeli attack on UNRWA school
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has “strongly condemned” Israel’s bombing of the UNRWA-operated al-Jaouni school.
In a statement shared on X, the ministry called the attack a “horrific massacre” that confirms Israel’s “criminal approach and its disregard for the principles of international humanitarian law”.
“We reiterate the call for an urgent international investigation, including the dispatch of independent UN investigators to ascertain the facts regarding the occupation’s continuous targeting of schools and shelters for displaced persons,” said the ministry.
Palestine demands international protection after UN school strike
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned Israel’s strike on the al-Jaouni school in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, calling it a “horrific massacre”.
In a statement, it called on the international community to provide Palestinians international protection and stop the “war of extermination and displacement against our people”.
The ministry also called for UNRWA employees and other humanitarian workers to be protected from “the brutality of the occupation”.
Polio vaccination drive continues in northern Gaza
Health workers are continuing to vaccinate children against polio in northern Gaza for a third day.
Footage posted by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) relief group showed its members helping deliver the vaccines.
As of yesterday, the polio vaccination drive had reached at least 530,000 children throughout the enclave, nearing its goal of 640,000 children.
Israel arrests 40 in latest West Bank raids
Israeli forces have detained 40 Palestinians in raids throughout the occupied West Bank since last night, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
Most of the arrests took place in the governorates of Hebron and Tubas. One of those detained was pulled from a hospital where he was being treated, said the society.
Since October 7, Israeli forces have made at least 10,700 arrests in the West Bank, the group added.
‘Carnage must stop,’ says WHO chief after Israeli attack on school
The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has condemned Israel’s strike on the al-Jaouni school in central Gaza, saying “the carnage in Gaza must stop”.
“No words can reflect the true horror and loss of life in Gaza,” he wrote on X. “Hospitals, schools and shelters have been repeatedly bombarded, resulting in deaths of civilians and humanitarians.”
Israel has killed 41,118 Palestinians since October 7: Health Ministry
Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 34 people and injured 96 over the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The ministry also reported that there are additional victims trapped in areas inaccessible to ambulances and civil defence crews.
The latest casualties bring the total number of people killed in the enclave since October 7 to 41,118, with 95,125 injured, the ministry added.
Click here to share on social mediaFour bodies recovered from central Rafah
Gaza’s civil defence say they have recovered the bodies of four people killed by Israeli bombardment in central Rafah’s Tal az-Zohour neighbourhood.
Their deaths follow our earlier report of three people being killed in Rafah’s Khirbet al-Adas area.
We will keep you updated as more information emerges.
‘Endless and senseless killing, day after day’ in Gaza: Lazzarini
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has condemned Israel’s bombing of the al-Jaouni school that killed six of its staff members, taking the number of UNRWA employees killed in Gaza to at least 220.
“Endless and senseless killing, day after day,” Lazzarini said in a statement. “Humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war.”
He called for a ceasefire and accountability saying, “The longer impunity prevails, the more international humanitarian law & the Geneva Conventions will become irrelevant.”
Israel’s al-Jaouni school attack the ‘result of total impunity’
The lack of accountability that Israel has faced following previous attacks has enabled the latest massacre to take place at the UN-operated al-Jaouni school in central Gaza, Abdullah Al-Arian, assistant professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar, has told Al Jazeera.
“This is the result of total impunity,” he said, referring to the strike. “We have become so desensitised to this level of atrocity [in] schools and hospitals that we forget that at the beginning this was considered something completely off limits.”
Al-Arian said Israel has been “testing the limits of what is acceptable” to the international community and escalating violence accordingly in Gaza.
“This is exactly how genocidal campaigns unfold,” he said.
Al-Arian added that the targeting of UNRWA facilities and staff was part of a broader attempt to delegitimise and criminalise the agency, which Israel sees as an obstacle to its goal of stripping Palestinians of their refugee status.
The scene here at the hospital [in Deir el-Balah], where victims of the attack on the UN-operated al-Jaouni school have been taken, is quite chaotic. People are bidding farewell to their relatives pronounced dead at the hospital. One person who is in critical condition was pulled from the hospital just to say goodbye to family members killed in the attack. It was a heartbreaking scene.
This is not the first time we’ve seen UN-run evacuation centres attacked. These facilities are marked, their coordinates shared with the Israeli military. They are known to have turned into shelters for displaced families. But the UN’s blue and white colours on the shelters is not protecting the people inside.
Stop funding Netanyahu’s war on Gaza: Sanders
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has urged the US government to stop funding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza.
“This week: 19 people killed; scores injured in a strike in a ‘humanitarian zone’ in Gaza. An American shot in the head in the West Bank. Now, another school bombed, killing 14 people, including 6 UN aid workers,” he posted on X.
“Enough is enough. No more money for Netanyahu’s war machine.”
Israel detains 15 in Hebron, Far’a camp
Israeli forces have carried out another wave of arrests in the occupied West Bank, detaining a total of 12 people in the governorate of Hebron and the Far’a refugee camp, reports Wafa.
The forces made a total of 12 arrests in Hebron governorate, raiding the town of Sa’ir and Arroub refugee camp. Three of those detained are former prisoners, according to Wafa.
They arrested three more people, including a father and son, in Far’a camp, reported Wafa.
Earlier in the night, as we reported, an Israeli sniper shot and killed a Palestinian man during the raid on Far’a camp.
Israeli attack kills three in Rafah
The Wafa news agency is reporting that three people have been killed in an Israeli attack in Rafah’s Khirbet al-Adas area.
This brings the total number of people killed in Gaza this morning to at least eight, following earlier attacks in Jabalia and Gaza City.
In central Gaza, Israeli forces have also struck residential buildings in the Bureij and Nuseirat camps, according to Wafa.
Stop letting aid into northern Gaza, says former Israeli official
The former head of Israel’s National Security Council has advocated blocking all aid to northern Gaza to defeat Hamas.
“When you completely prevent the entry of supplies, you make thousands of Hamas operatives surrender or starve to death,” said retired Major-General Giora Eiland, according to Israeli public radio.
Aid supply to Gaza has suffered due to increasing Israeli curbs and attacks on humanitarian workers.
Back in May, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must take action to ensure basic food supplies reach Gaza, where it warned famine and starvation were spreading.
