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Six United Nations aid workers killed by Israeli air strikes

Women and children among at least 34 people killed in Gaza and UNRWA records ‘highest death toll among our staff in a single incident’

Six aid workers were among dozens of people killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Wednesday, according to a United Nations agency. 
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine in the Near East (UNRWA) said the strikes on a school housing refugees in Nuseirat resulted in “the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident”. 
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that it was targeting Hamas operatives using the al-Jaouni Preparatory Boys School as a command room “to plan and execute terrorist attacks”. 
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
Though the military said its strike was “precise”, doctors reported afterwards that the 18 casualties included women and children. 
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said the lack of accountability for the killing of humanitarian workers was “totally unacceptable”. 
The deaths demonstrated “very dramatic violations of the international humanitarian law and the total absence of an effective protection of civilians,” Mr Guterres said.
A total of 220 UNRWA staff have died during the conflict, the agency reported on Wednesday. 
A total of at least 64 people were killed and 104 wounded when Israeli missiles and bombs hit homes across Gaza throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday, hospital officials reported. 
The UNRWA said one of the children found dead at the school was the daughter of Momin Selmi, a member of Gaza’s civil defence agency, which rescues wounded people and retrieves bodies after strikes.
Earlier, the IDF struck a home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters ranging in age from 21 months to 21 years old, according to the European Hospital, which received the casualties.
A strike late Tuesday on a home in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The home reportedly belonged to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at the al-Quds Open University, who survived.
Another four people, including a woman and child, reportedly died when Israel bombed a residential apartment in the Tuffah neighbourhood in northern Gaza City.
Israeli jets also struck a group of people waiting to buy bread outside a bakery in the Nassr neighbourhood, in the city’s west. At least three people were killed. 
Gaza’s schools are packed with tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders. 
At least 12,000 people have been sleeping at the al-Jaouni school. 
“All of a sudden there was a huge explosion. Women and children were blown to pieces,” a witness told Al Jazeera news agency. 
The UNRWA said the dead included six humanitarian workers who had been helping displaced civilians, including the manager of the refugee shelter. 
“Humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war,” the agency’s director, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on X.
In a separate statement, the UNRWA said the school had been hit by Israeli strikes five times. 
“Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people,” a statement from the agency read. 
“Sincere condolences to their families and loved ones.”
It added: “Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target.”
More than 90 per cent of Gaza’s school buildings have been severely or partially damaged in strikes, and more than half the schools housing displaced people have been hit, according to a survey in July by the Education Cluster, a collection of aid groups led by UNICEF and Save the Children.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,084 Palestinians and wounded another 95,029, the territory’s Health Ministry said. 
The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and militants. 

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