ARAB AND WORLD

Thu 12 Sep 2024 10:38 am - Jerusalem Time

Guterres announces the killing of 6 UNRWA employees in an Israeli bombing of a school in Gaza

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that six UNRWA staff were killed in an Israeli army shelling of a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat camp in Gaza.


Guterres said in a statement on the X platform on Thursday that the school bombed by Israel belongs to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).


He pointed out that "what is happening in Gaza is absolutely unacceptable," stressing that Israel carried out an air strike on a school that had been converted into a shelter and was housing about 12,000 displaced Palestinians.


"Six UNRWA staff members were among those killed" in the Israeli attack, the Secretary-General added in his post.


He stressed that these flagrant violations of international humanitarian law must end immediately.


For his part, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini indicated in a statement on the X platform that at least 220 UNRWA employees were killed in Gaza.


“Humanitarian workers, buildings and operations have been blatantly and consistently ignored since the beginning of the war,” Lazzarini said.


“The longer impunity continues, the more international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions lose their relevance,” he said.


The Civil Defense Directorate in the Gaza Strip stated in a statement that women and children were among those killed in the attack on Al-Jaouni School in Al-Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, where 18 people were killed and 18 others were injured.


Since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza, the Palestinians have been facing repeated displacement, as the Israeli army orders residents of residential areas and neighborhoods to evacuate them in preparation for bombing, destroying, and penetrating them.


During their displacement, Palestinians are forced to seek refuge in schools or the homes of their relatives or acquaintances. Some set up tents in the streets, schools, or other places such as prisons and amusement parks, under difficult humanitarian conditions where there is no sufficient water or food, and diseases spread.

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Guterres announces the killing of 6 UNRWA employees in an Israeli bombing of a school in Gaza