27 killed in Israel strike on UN school in Gaza

An Israeli strike on a UN school in Gaza, which was being used as a Hamas compound, killed at least 27 people early today, Palestinian authorities said.

The military also confirmed that its jets “conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat”, in central Gaza. UNRWA is the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Hamas’s media office said the strike killed at least 27 people and wounded dozens more, calling it a “horrific massacre… that shames humanity”.

Israel launched its war on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas’ October 7 attacks that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Hamas also took 251 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 41 the army says are dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 36,586 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Israel has faced growing diplomatic isolation over its conduct of the war, with cases against it before two international courts, and several European governments recognising a Palestinian state.

UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 employees in the territory of being involved in the October 7 attack.

Its chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said last week that Israel “must stop its campaign against UNRWA” in an opinion article published by the New York Times.

Sticking points

The latest strike came as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators resumed talks Wednesday to try to secure a truce and hostage release deal.

US President Joe Biden last week outlined what he called a three-phase Israeli plan to halt the fighting for six weeks while hostages held in Gaza are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and aid is stepped up.

G7 powers and Arab states have backed the proposal announced by Biden, although sticking points remain — Hamas insists on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal, demands that Israel has flatly rejected.

A source with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed to AFP that a meeting took place on Wednesday “between the Qatari prime minister and head of Egyptian intelligence with Hamas in Qatari capital Doha to discuss a deal for a truce in Gaza and the exchange of hostages and prisoners”.

Biden has urged Hamas to accept the deal and has deployed CIA chief Bill Burns to Qatar, where the group’s political bureau is based, for a renewed push after months of negotiations.

The source said Burns would “continue working with mediators on reaching an agreement between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages”.

Biden earlier told Qatar’s emir that “Hamas is now the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire”, and “confirmed Israel’s readiness to move forward” with the terms he set out last week.

A senior Hamas official in Beirut on Tuesday accused Israel of seeking “endless” negotiations and reiterated the group’s position rejecting any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said his group would “deal seriously and positively” with any offer meeting those demands.

Muhammad al-Najjar, a 35-year-old man from northern Gaza twice displaced by the war, told AFP: “We just want to solve and end the catastrophic situation that we are living. What matters to us is that the war made us exhausted, destroyed us and destroyed everything in our lives.”