Civil defense teams and Palestinian residents launched a search and rescue operation after the Israeli army targeted a UN School, where thousands of displaced people took refuge at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, September 11, 2024. /CFP
The UN agency for Palestine refugees said six staffers were killed after two air strikes hit a school in central Gaza on Wednesday, marking what it said was the highest death toll among its staff in a single incident.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on X that, "Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people."
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli army said in a statement that it conducted a strike on a command and control center in Nuseirat in central Gaza, which it said was operated by Hamas.
"This school has been hit five times since the war began. It is home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children," UNRWA added.
The Hamas-run government media office said the Israeli strike killed at least 18 people, including the UNRWA staff members.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Reuters on Wednesday that a lack of accountability for the killing of UN staff and humanitarian aid workers in Gaza was "totally unacceptable."
The Israeli military says it takes steps to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and that at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities in Gaza are militants. It accuses Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, which Hamas denies.
Civil defense teams and civilians carry out search and rescue operations from the rubble after an Israeli attack at a UN school at Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, September 11, 2024. /CFP
The attack came following a previous Israeli bombing of the UN-run school on July 6, which killed at least 16 Palestinians, most of them children and women.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023.The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the strip has risen to 41,084, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Wednesday.
The vast majority of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Meanwhile, a Hamas delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday to discuss a truce in Gaza and a potential hostage and prisoner exchange, the militant group said in a statement.
Hamas said its lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya met with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
The Palestinian group said they had discussed "developments concerning the Palestinian cause and the aggression on the Gaza Strip" without indicating that talks had resulted in a breakthrough.
Recent rounds of mediation held in Doha and Cairo have been based on a framework laid out in May by U.S. President Joe Biden and a "bridging proposal" presented to the parties in August.
The Hamas statement reiterated its "readiness for the immediate implementation of the ceasefire agreement based on President Biden's declaration."
Hamas also claimed it had not placed any further demands on negotiators and at the same time was "rejecting any new conditions to this agreement from any party."
(With input from Xinhua, AFP)