Israeli strike on UNRWA shelter 'part of the ongoing genocide' by Israel: Hamas

By Nour Abuaisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian movement Hamas denounced on Friday the Israeli airstrike that hit a UN-run school sheltering displaced people in western Gaza City, saying the latest attack is part of an ongoing “genocide” perpetrated by Israel.

Earlier on Friday, an Israeli attack on Asma School, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), resulted in the deaths of three Palestinians and injuries to 15 others.

The incident marks the second attack on a UNRWA school within two days. On Thursday, an Israeli strike on a school housing 6,000 displaced persons in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed 40 people.

“The continuous Zionist targeting of UNRWA schools, including the latest attack on a school in the Al-Shati Camp in western Gaza City, which caused casualties among the displaced, is part of the ongoing genocide committed by the fascist occupation government against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.

The statement said, "The occupation has destroyed or damaged around 148 UN facilities, killing hundreds of displaced people, most of whom are children, women, and the elderly."

Hamas called on the international community to “to form investigative committees for these crimes and hold the criminal leaders of the occupation accountable”.

Earlier in the day, UNRWA demanded investigations into all Israeli violations against the agency, including attacks on its buildings and centers that house displaced civilians.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

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

*Writing by Mohammad Sio