“UNRWA can confirm that one of our schools is in the Nuseirat area [in central Gaza] was attacked by Israeli Forces during the night/early morning. The school may have been attacked multiple times,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said UN News. “The reported death toll is between 35 and 45. Many others were injured. We cannot confirm the above figure at this stage.”
Children are caught up in war
Local officials in Gaza reported that 37 people were killed in an attack on a school building in the Nuseirat refugee camp near Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. Among the dead were 14 children, the report also said.
Media quoted the Israeli military as saying that the goal of the attack was to destroy Hamas members and that it was carried out only after aerial surveillance, with additional measures taken to minimize risks to civilians.
In an early response condemning the school attack, UNRWA said 6,000 people had taken shelter on the grounds. Since the war began, more than 180 buildings belonging to United Nations agencies have been attacked, killing more than 450 displaced people in those facilities.
“The vast majority” are shelters converted into schools, UNRWA said, issuing a reminder “to all parties to the conflict that schools and other United Nations facilities are not shall never be used for military or combat purposes…United Nations facilities must be fully protected.
Rubble for a house
Development occurs when humanitarian actions are enacted warning about the already dire sanitary emergency in Gaza as civilians displaced by the war “have no choice but to live among the rubble and in destroyed UNRWA facilities”.
In its latest report on relief operations in May, the UN agency flagged that relief teams were allowed to take in “just under 450 trucks in the past three weeks to support humanitarian operations”. .
“This is nothing compared to the need,” UNRWA said, stressing that at least 600 trucks a day of “commercial, fuel and humanitarian supplies” were needed to help prevent famine and death massacre in Gaza.
“Fuel is running low; Our teams are on standby to resolve the issue once the Israeli authorities give the green light,” UNRWA said, before highlighting “appalling” scenes of destruction from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where There are thousands of people displaced.
“All eyes are on a proposal to end this war through a ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the safe and secure transfer of urgently and substantially needed supplies into Gaza,” said the update. UNRWA continued as the United States and 16 other countries expressed their views. fully support the ceasefire and hostage release proposal proposed by President Joe Biden on May 31.
Cholera killer
As summer temperatures rise, humanitarian activists also express deep concern that preventable disease outbreaks could become more widespread.
“Children in Gaza are living with mountains of trash and raw sewage as basic services reach breaking point amid continued fighting and displacement,” said Catherine Russell, head of the United Nations Children’s Fund. UNICEFon X
UN health chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the lack of clean drinking water also raised warnings that cholera could also strike, as well as health care provision remaining “paralyzed”. . speak.
“Intense hostilities have severely paralyzed healthcare provision in Rafah, where tens of thousands of vulnerable people remain,” he said in the X post, also noted that the International Medical Corps partner non-governmental health organization (NGO) has moved its 160-bed field hospital from Al Mawasi in western Rafah to its existing facility in Deir Al-Balah .
World Health Organization (WHO) noted that the only operational field hospital in Al Mawasi is the one run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Meanwhile, in Rafah City, there is currently only a United Arab Emirates field hospital providing medical services, “but it is increasingly difficult to access due to hostilities,” Tedros said. .
Spiral West Coast
In a related development in the occupied West Bank, the United Nations’ top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) warned of increased violence, bloodshed and killings, mainly Palestinians.
More than 500 Palestinians and 12 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 7, according to the United Nations aid coordination office. OCHA.
Some 280 olive and fig trees and 580 vines were also damaged by Israeli settlers in seven communities across the West Bank during the reporting period, the United Nations office said in a scheduled update. a week long.
“While all eyes are on Gaza, the people of the West Bank must also be supported and protected. The situation here is very unstable,” said UN Humanitarian Coordinator for OPT Muhannad Hadi. “We can’t wait for the West Bank to become another Gaza.”
Mr. Hadi’s comments followed Wednesday meetings with Palestinian and Bedouin pastoral communities in the central West Bank. OCHA said in its update that Palestinian community members and support organizations reported “increased violence, settler activities, access restrictions, demolitions, and other other coercive policies and practices”.
In the same report, the United Nations aid office said Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men near a military gate located at the Barrier west of Tulkarm city on Tuesday, “after the two men This man is said to have opened fire at them. Their bodies were retained by Israeli forces.”
