The Israeli army claimed on Friday to have eliminated “17 terrorists” in a strike the day before on a school of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the center of the Gaza Strip. The attack left at least 35 people dead according to the UN. Hamas media office accused Israeli military of providing “false information,” stating that three people reported as “dead” by Israel were still “alive,” and that at least two people had been killed in other strikes, adding that the Nousseirat strike had been fatal to “14 children.”
“Eight additional terrorists” killed in this strike in Nousseirat have been identified, including six members of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the Tsahal wrote in a statement. They added that one of them had “taken part” in the attack of October 7 which started the war.
Following the attack on the UNRWA school in Nazareth early on the previous day, the identities of 17 terrorists who were killed in the attack have so far been verified according to the Israeli Defense Forces. Thursday evening, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army, affirmed that nine Palestinian fighters had been killed in this strike, some of whom had “participated in the massacre of October 7”.
Accusing Hamas of having purposely used this school to launch attacks, the Israeli army claims to have carried out a “targeted strike” using “precision weapons” on “three classes where around thirty terrorists were hiding.” The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, condemned this strike, denouncing it as “a new terrifying example of the price paid by civilians” in the Gaza war.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, accused Israel of striking “without prior warning” the school of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the center of the Gaza Strip, which sheltered “6,000 displaced people.” The war in the Gaza Strip was sparked by the Hamas attack on October 7 and resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, the majority of them civilians killed on that day. Of the 251 people taken hostage on October 7, 120 remain captive in Gaza, 41 of whom were declared dead by the Israeli army. The Israeli military campaign launched in retaliation has devastated the Gaza Strip. Over 36,700 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the war in bombings or operations by the Israeli army.