Gazans suffer ‘another night of horror’ after deadly strikes: UN agency

By Iyad Nabolsi

ISTANBUL (AA) – Palestinians suffered “another night of horror” in the Gaza Strip after two deadly Israeli strikes in the enclave, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Monday.

Four people were killed and 40 other injured when Israeli warplanes hit a hospital courtyard in the central city of Deir al-Balah, burning 30 tents where people were sleeping.

It followed the death of 22 people, including 15 children, in another airstrike on a school sheltering displaced civilians in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

“Another night of horror in the Gaza Strip,” UNRWA said in a statement.

“A strike hit a hospital courtyard, burning the tents where people were sleeping. Just before this, an UNRWA school sheltering families was hit in Nuseirat,” it said.

That same school, UNRWA added, “was going to be used as a polio vaccination site today.”

The second phase of a polio vaccination campaign for children under 10 began in central Gaza early Monday.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 42,300 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 98,600 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio