Israel used US-made bombs to attack UN school in Gaza: Report

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Israel used US-made bombs to conduct an overnight airstrike on a UN school-turned-makeshift-shelter that killed dozens of people, according to a report that was published Thursday.

Footage from the scene reviewed by CNN found fragments from at least two US-made GBU-39 small diameter bombs (SDB) at the school in the Nuseirat refugee camp. About 6,000 people had sought shelter from Israel's war there, according to the UN's Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA).

CNN said its analysis of the bomb debris was reviewed by explosive experts. The findings are the second in as many weeks that have found that US-supplied munitions were used to carry out attacks on displaced Palestinians.

An overnight Israeli airstrike near Rafah on May 26 killed at least 45 people in a camp for displaced people. Multiple news outlets reported that their independent analyses confirmed the use of US-made bombs in that strike, with many pointing to the use of another GBU-39 SDB.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said Thursday that the strike killed 35 people and left "many more injured" when it struck the facility without any prior warning to the thousands of people who were sheltering.

"Another horrific day in Gaza. Another UNRWA school turned shelter attacked. This time in Nuseirat, in the Middle Areas, hit overnight by the Israeli Forces without prior warning to the displaced or UNRWA," he wrote on X.

"Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law. UN staff, premises and operations must be protected at all times," he added.

The Israeli military, for its part, admitted hitting the UNRWA school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, claiming Hamas fighters were hiding inside.

Lazzarini said the UN is "unable to verify these claims."

Israel has continued its sweeping offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, Hamas attack that killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities. Vast tracts of Gaza also lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.