Eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli air strike on a training college near Gaza City that was being used to distribute aid, Palestinian witnesses said. The attack came as Israeli tanks were advancing on the southern city of Rafah.
Witnesses said the attack hit part of a vocational college run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which is now providing aid to displaced families.
“Some people had come to get coupons and others were displaced from their homes and were taking shelter here. Some were filling water, others were getting coupons and suddenly we heard the sound of something falling. We ran, the people who were carrying water dropped it,” said Mohammad Tafesh, an eyewitness.
A Reuters photographer saw a small building completely collapsed and bodies wrapped in blankets lying on the roadside waiting to be carried away.
“We pulled out martyrs from under the rubble, one person was selling cold drinks, another was selling pastries and others were distributing or taking coupons,” Tafesh said. “Around four or five have been martyred and 10 are injured. Thank God the injured are doing well.”
The Israeli military said the site, which previously served as UNRWA headquarters, had been used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists. It said precautionary measures were taken before the attack to minimise the risk of harming civilians.
“This morning (Sunday), IAF fighter jets, guided by IDF and ISA intelligence, attacked a terrorist infrastructure where Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were operating,” the army said in a statement.
It added, “This is another example of Hamas’ systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure and civilian populations as human shields for its terrorist activities.”
Hamas denies Israeli allegations that it uses civilians as human shields or exploits civilian facilities for military purposes.
UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said the agency was investigating details of the alleged attack before providing further information.
“About 190 of our buildings have been hit since the beginning of the war. This is the case for most of our buildings in Gaza,” he said, adding that a total of 193 UNRWA team members have been killed in the conflict.
End of the ‘acute phase’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the intense fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip will end “very soon”, but that the war will not end until the Islamist group takes control of the Palestinian territory.
“After the intensive phase is over, we will have the possibility to move part of our forces to the north. And we will do that,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.
Israel’s fight against Iran-backed Hezbollah has intensified along the northern border with Lebanon, where several Israeli towns have been evacuated. Netanyahu said the northern deployment would allow residents to return home.
Moving to Rafah
Israel’s war in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory has lasted more than eight months, and its advances have been focused on two areas its forces have not yet captured – Rafah on the southern edge of Gaza, and the area around Deir al-Balah in the centre.
Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza began when Hamas raided southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
The offensive has killed nearly 37,600 people, according to Palestinian health officials, and wreaked havoc across Gaza.
Residents said Israeli tanks had reached the edge of the Mawasi displaced persons camp northwest of Rafah during fierce fighting with Hamas-led fighters, who have blown up dozens of homes in recent days as part of their efforts to advance towards western and northern Rafah.
“The fighting has become very intense with the resistance. Now the occupation forces are eyeing the Mawasis area, forcing families there to move to Khan Younis,” one resident, speaking on a chat app on condition of anonymity, said.
The Israeli military said it was continuing “intelligence-based, targeted operations” in the Rafah area and had located weapons depots and tunnels and killed Palestinian gunmen.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement said their fighters had attacked Israeli forces in Rafah with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs as well as pre-implanted explosive devices.
Another attack in Nuseirat in central Gaza killed two people.
In Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, health officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital reported two infants had died of malnutrition, bringing the number of children who have died from malnutrition or dehydration since Oct. 7 to at least 31. Health officials say the number is likely underreported.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
