GAZA: A United Nations agency has condemned a deadly Israeli airstrike on a UN-run school shelter in central Gaza, where at least 30 people, including women and children, were killed on Tuesday in what the agency called a “double strike” that left charred ruins and desperate survivors behind.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that Israeli forces struck the school in Al Bureij at around 6pm and again at 10.20pm. The school had been housing dozens of displaced families, many of whom had already fled multiple times since the war began last October.
In a statement to UN News, UNRWA reported that the strike caused extensive structural damage, ignited a fire, and made evacuation nearly impossible. Survivors had to tear through walls to reach the wounded and the dead.
“Surviving parents and children are trying to salvage their belongings among the blood and body parts of their relatives and neighbours,” the agency said, warning that rescue efforts continue as several people remain unaccounted for.
Footage released by the UN showed the aftermath—shattered walls, scorched debris, and hundreds of dazed survivors picking through the remains of the courtyard. A nearby school housing additional tents also caught fire, further compounding the devastation.
Since the conflict erupted on October 7, 2023, following Hamas-led attacks on Israel, more than 400 schools in Gaza have been hit, according to satellite analysis by the UN. The UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) now estimates that 95.4 per cent of Gaza’s 564 schools have sustained damage, with over 500 requiring complete reconstruction or major rehabilitation.
“There is no humanity left in Gaza, and no humanity left as the world continues to watch day after day as families are bombed, burned alive and starved,” UNRWA stated in its reaction to the Al Bureij attack.
The international condemnation deepened on Wednesday when the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, criticised Israel’s reported plans to push Gaza’s population further south, calling it an unsustainable and dangerous strategy.
“There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies… will now succeed,” Türk said. “Expanding the offensive will almost certainly cause further mass displacement, more deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Gaza’s little remaining infrastructure.”
Independent UN-appointed human rights experts echoed these concerns in a separate statement, warning of irreversible consequences. “Escalating atrocities in Gaza mark a critical moral turning point and demand urgent international action,” they said, pointing to daily assaults by land, air, and sea.
The experts noted that civilians of all kinds—children, people with disabilities, journalists, healthcare workers, even hostages—are increasingly bearing the brunt. On March 18 alone, they said, 600 Palestinians were reportedly killed, including 400 children.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, conditions for Palestinian communities continue to deteriorate. The UN’s humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) reported that Israeli forces demolished more than 30 structures in the Hebron-area hamlet of Khallet Athaba on Monday, displacing around 50 people. It was the third and largest demolition in the community since February.
In another incident, six homes were demolished in Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, affecting 17 families. These demolitions are part of a wider plan that threatens more than 100 buildings, according to OCHA.
The agency warned of a “strong push” to uproot Palestinian communities, raising alarms over the risk of forcible population transfers—a violation of international law.
OCHA said humanitarian partners are mobilising aid but urged immediate international action to halt these demolitions and protect vulnerable populations in both Gaza and the West Bank.
As the death toll climbs and infrastructure collapses, UN voices continue to press for a cease to the spiralling destruction and a return to the obligations of humanitarian law.
