People walk past the damaged Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). (Photo by AFP)
Tel Aviv, May 8 (RHC)-- Israel has acknowledged bombing a building belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the besieged Gaza Strip. Israel’s broadcaster KAN said the military hit the UN facility last weekend on the proclaimed grounds that it was being used as a "military command center" by the resistance movement Hamas.
Many people were also killed in airstrikes by Israeli warplanes on two schools in Gaza where displaced families had taken shelter.
Israel has previously targeted UNRWA centers and UN-run schools across the besieged Palestinian territory.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini recently called for countries to back an independent investigation into killings and detentions of its staff and damage to its premises in Gaza.
UNRWA has accused Israel of targeting its facilities since early October. The agency says 182 of its staff there had been killed and more than 160 of its shelters hit, resulting in the death of hundreds of people fleeing Israeli bombardment.
UNRWA is the biggest humanitarian aid provider in Gaza, where its 13,000 staff there also run schools and social services for the refugees who make up the majority of Gazans.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinians has called for a probe and accountability for what he described as “blatant disregard” for the UN operations in Gaza.
The regime is forcibly evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the prospect of its widely-discouraged ground invasion.
Hamas has called on humanitarian organizations, including UNRWA, not to leave Rafah. The Palestinian resistance movement has also called on the international community to take urgent action to stop Israel’s planned invasion.
Israel has killed nearly 34,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
The International Court of Justice has said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
