At least nine people were killed and 75 injured when Israeli tank shells struck a UN shelter in the Gaza Strip and set it on fire, according to the UN relief agency in the area.
Thomas White, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said two tanks struck the agency's Khan Yunis training center on Wednesday, where about 800 people were taking shelter.
Videos circulating on social media showed Palestinians fleeing a two-story shelter as a fire engulfed the school and black smoke rose into the sky.
“The building is on fire, and there are many casualties.'' White wrote to X after the strike.. “Safe access to the center has been denied for two days. People are trapped.”
White said medical workers from the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived at the evacuation center and confirmed at least nine deaths while clearing the area.
He claimed that this was just the latest incident in which civilians were caught in the middle of heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas in Khan Yunis in recent days.
“Fighting has been ongoing in and around the area for two days, and we are in constant contact with the Israeli military, and those in shelters and protected facilities such as hospitals and UN flags are being It's safe,'' White told CNN on Wednesday.
“The reality is that lives have been lost in and around these facilities over the past few days…We are not warned when strikes occur in and around these protected facilities.” he added.
The Israel Defense Forces has not yet commented on the explosion and fire at the UNRWA shelter. However, the Israeli military acknowledged that it is working to “dismantle Hamas' military framework” and continues to operate in Khan Yunis.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the attack on the training center as “terrible” and called for an end to civilian deaths in Khan Yunis.
Vedant Patel, a deputy U.S. State Department spokesperson, called the casualties at the shelter “very disturbing” at a press conference Wednesday.
“I deplore today's attack on the UN training center Khan Yunis,” Patel told reporters. “Civilians must be protected and the protected nature of UN facilities must be respected.
“Humanitarian workers must be protected so they can continue to provide the lifesaving humanitarian assistance they need to civilians,” he added.
The strike on the shelter comes as fighting in Khan Yunis leaves thousands of people trapped inside the Nasser hospital complex as Israel and Hamas battle around the medical facility.
Médecins Sans Frontières said the fighting had trapped its crew at Nasser Hospital along with about 850 patients and thousands of refugees.
Humanitarian groups also fear the hospital itself could be attacked as the IDF continues its advance in southern Gaza, after Israel ordered a mass evacuation of the area.
Médecins Sans Frontières says Nasser Hospital is one of only two hospitals in the south still able to treat critically ill patients.
White told CNN. Nearly 2 million Gazans already displaced by the war have fled further south to the Egyptian border, with “tens of thousands continuing to make the journey again” on Israeli orders, he said.
What civilians can do to avoid casualties in the conflict, with at least 210 Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours and nearly 26,000 killed since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. White said there are very few.
“No one could have imagined the level of death, destruction and displacement that we have seen over the past three months,” he told the outlet.
with post wire
