Six staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were killed Wednesday when two Israeli airstrikes struck a school in Gaza that had been converted into a shelter for displaced people, the agency said.
“This is the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident,” UNRWA wrote on the social media platform X.
The strikes killed at least 34 people, according to media reports. Among the dead were the shelter’s manager and other UNRWA staff members.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the violence. “What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he posted on X. “These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”
The UNRWA school in Nuseirat, in the Middle Area of the Gaza Strip, was sheltering around 12,000 displaced people, primarily women and children. This marked the fifth time the site had been hit since the conflict began 11 months ago.
Earlier Wednesday, the United Nations said the school had previously been “deconflicted” with Israeli forces, meaning its coordinates had been shared to prevent it from being targeted.
UNRWA urged all parties to refrain from using schools or their surroundings for military purposes. “No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared,” the agency said in a statement. “Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times; they are not a target.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini decried the ongoing violence. “Endless and senseless killing, day after day,” he wrote on X, noting that at least 220 UNRWA staff have been killed since the war began. “Humanitarian staff, premises, and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded,” he said, warning that continued impunity could erode the relevance of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
In a separate development, UN officials reported that health workers are continuing efforts to vaccinate young children in northern Gaza against polio, part of a broader campaign aimed at eradicating the disease, which can cause paralysis.
According to preliminary data from the World Health Organization, more than 81,600 children were vaccinated as of Tuesday. Polio was detected in Gaza in June, and UN agencies, along with their partners, launched a two-round vaccination campaign this month to reach more than 640,000 children with two doses of a novel oral polio vaccine.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that nearly 528,000 children have received the first dose and that more than 230 teams are on the ground working to vaccinate all children under 10. “They will need to do this again in four weeks,” he said.
