UPDATE - At least 18 killed in new Israeli attack on UN-run school sheltering displaced Gazans

​​​​​​​UPDATES DEATH TOLL, CHANGES LEDE

By Mohammed Majed

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The death toll rose to 18 in an Israeli bombing Wednesday of a UN-run school housing displaced civilians in the central Gaza Strip, with several injured, according to Gaza’s Media Office.

Some staff members from the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) were among the fatalities, the office added in a statement, without specifying the number killed.

The Civil Defense said several children and women were among the victims in the attack that targeted the al-Jaouni School in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The attack was the fifth by the Israeli army against the school since Oct. 7, amid Tel Aviv’s onslaught on Gaza, it said.

The school shelters more than 5,000 displaced civilians in Gaza, according to authorities.

“It is the 47th massacre to have been committed by the Israeli army during its war of genocide in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where over 250,000 people live,” the Office said.

It said more than 18 schools and shelter centers have been attacked by the army in the Nuseirat refugee camp since Oct. 7.

Israel has systematically targeted civilian facilities, including schools, hospitals and places of worship, amid its offensive against Gaza.

Targeting civilian facilities can constitute a war crime, under the rules of war.

Last month, at least 100 victims were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli strike on the Al-Taba’een School in Gaza City, where more than 6,000 displaced people have sheltered.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack in early last October despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 41,100 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and more than 95,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

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

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

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala