Israel's military is defending its actions after a strike on a shelter in central Gaza killed at least 18 people, including six U.N. employees. The Israel Defense Forces claims three of the six UNRWA staff were members of Hamas but didn't immediately provide any evidence. At least 44 other people were wounded. The IDF admits to carrying out Wednesday's strike on the U.N. school-turned-shelter where thousands of displaced people have been seeking refuge. Israel's military claims Hamas was using the location to plan and execute terrorist attacks. The U.N. says the three people accused by the IDF were, in fact, teachers.
On this particular occasion, though, we understand from UNRWA that six of their employees were killed in this Israeli airstrike, 18 killed in all, and they have given the names, they have given the details of those that were killed in the airstrike, saying that they were teachers before the war began, saying they are also well known in the local community. One of their colleagues within the same facility that was hit said that they had been distributing food earlier that morning and then they had sat down to lunch when the bombs hit.
Israel says the reason they targeted this particular school is that there were Hamas terrorists operating inside the compound who were planning attacks against the IDF and also against Israel. They claim three of those UNRWA workers were actually affiliated with Hamas as well, although they haven't given specific evidence to back up those allegations. It has been rejected by UNRWA itself, though, saying that Israel has given them names of those they believe are affiliated with Hamas as recently as July, and those particular names were not on that list.
The strike itself has been condemned by the UN Secretary General, and also his spokesperson was asked specifically about the Israeli allegations. We have no way of, we're not in a position to confirm it, to deny it. Our focus is on humanitarian help. What is clear to us is that no one in this conflict, and all parties, and I do mean all parties, should never use civilian infrastructure.
