Israel Pounds Gaza Refugee Camp as War Enters Ninth Month

AFP/APP

Palestine: Israeli forces bombarded a Gaza refugee camp on Friday after a deadly strike on a UN-run school there, as the war sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel entered its ninth month.

The conflict has killed thousands, laid waste to much of the Gaza Strip, uprooted most of its 2.4 million population and put them at risk of starvation.

Efforts to mediate the first ceasefire since a week-long pause in November appear to have stalled, only a week after US President Joe Biden offered a new roadmap.

Hamas has yet to respond to Biden’s proposal, while Israel has expressed openness to discussions but remains committed to its goal of destroying the Palestinian Islamist group.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, said at least 37 people were killed in Thursday’s Israeli strike on the UN-run school in Nuseirat camp.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering at the school, which was “hit without prior warning”.

 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the strike as “horrific”, while Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Zeid condemned what he called the “deliberate bombing of an UNRWA school”.

“Israeli violations of Palestinian rights continue day after day, in full view of the civilised world,” Zeid said on X.