United Nations, June 7 (RHC)-- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Israel’s deadly bombing of a school-turned-shelter in the besieged Gaza Strip, saying the carnage is a “horrific example” of civilian suffering in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

An Israeli strike targeted a UN-run school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Palestinian territory on Thursday, killing at least 40 people, including a number of women and children.

The aerial aggression wounded dozens more and its death toll is expected to rise due to the large number of serious and critical injuries, according to the director of the government media office in Gaza.  
“It’s just another horrific example of the price that civilians are paying, that Palestinian men, women and children who are just trying to survive (are paying),” said Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in a press conference later in the day.

When he was asked whether Guterres condemn this attack, Dujarric replied: “Of course he condemns this attack.  There will need to be accountability for everything that has happened in Gaza.”

Earlier, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also called for an investigation into the horrific strike.  “Reports coming from Gaza time and again show that violence and suffering are still the only reality for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.  This appalling news must be independently investigated,” he wrote on X.

The ill-fated school was run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the area.  The agency is the primary source of humanitarian aid not only to Gaza but also to Palestinian refugees throughout the region.

Israel’s bloody war machine has killed over 36,500 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The vast majority of the fatalities are women and children.  The savage campaign was launched after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out its historic Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities.

Israel has additionally enforced a comprehensive blockade on the coastal sliver, severing the supply of fuel, electricity, sustenance and water to the population of over two million Palestinians residing there.