Gaza: Six UNRWA staff killed in attacks on school sheltering displaced people

“This is the highest number of fatalities among our staff in a single incident,” UNRWA said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

At least 34 people were killed in the airstrikes, according to media reports.

UNRWA said the shelter manager and other team members were among the victims.

Guterres: Killing is ‘completely unacceptable’

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemn the bloodshed.

“What is happening in Gaza is completely unacceptable,” he said. wrote on X.

“These serious violations of international humanitarian law must end now.”

Not the goal

The UNRWA school in Nuseirat, located in the Middle Zone of the Gaza Strip, is sheltering some 12,000 displaced people, mostly women and children.

This is the fifth time the city has been attacked since the conflict began 11 months ago.

Earlier on Wednesday, the United Nations said the site had previously been cleared of clashes with Israeli forces.

UNRWA calls on all parties to the conflict to never use schools or the areas surrounding schools for military or combat purposes.

“No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared. Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not targets,” the tweet said.

‘Endless and senseless killing’

UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini lamented the “senseless and relentless killing, day in and day out” in Gaza.

Write on XAt least 220 of the agency’s staff have died since the war began, he said.

“Humanitarian personnel, facilities and operations have been blatantly and relentlessly ignored since the war began,” he said, warning that “the longer the lawlessness continues, the more irrelevant international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions will become.”

Om Samir, a mother from Gaza City, with her children at a UNRWA school where a polio vaccination campaign is underway.

The polio campaign continues

Separately, the United Nations reported that health workers continued efforts to vaccinate young children against polio in northern Gaza, part of a broader campaign to defeat the potentially crippling disease.

According to preliminary figures from the World Health Organization (as of Tuesday, more than 81,600 boys and girls have been vaccinated).WHO).

Polio was detected in Gaza in June and UN agencies and partners launched a two-round campaign this month to provide more than 640,000 children with two doses of the new oral polio vaccine type 2.

So far, nearly 528,000 children have been reached in the first round.

“More than 230 teams are on the ground trying to reach all children under 10 with the first round of polio vaccine,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in New York, adding that “they will need to do this again in four weeks.”

Broken health system

The operation comes as Gaza’s health care system remains in dire straits.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and partners say half of essential medicines are unavailable in the region, while primary health centres are facing critically low insulin levels.

In addition, routine vaccines to protect infants against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough are also nearly depleted.

West Bank Military Operations

The United Nations and partners also continue to assist Palestinians in the West Bank affected by Israel’s 10-day security operation in Jenin and Tulkarm, as well as nearby refugee camps.

This includes providing food and water, with OCHA coordinating efforts to provide additional assistance.

Over the weekend, the Office, together with UNRWA and other humanitarian partners, began assessing the needs of Palestinians affected by the operation.

Damage and relocation

More than 620 people, more than a third of them children, remain displaced, and some 2,400 housing units have been damaged, of which more than 100 are uninhabitable.

During the operation, more than 2.6 km of water supply and drainage networks in Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps were flattened, severely hindering the provision of essential services.

As a result, more than 33,000 residents have faced water cuts and sewage flooding over the past two weeks.