Israel-Gaza war live: UN chief condemns ‘violations’ of humanitarian law after six Unrwa staff killed in Israeli airstrike

UN chief condemns ‘violations’ of humanitarian law after six Unrwa staff killed in Israeli airstrikeHello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.UN chief António Guterres has condemned an Israeli airstrike on a central Gaza school being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians that killed 18 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s civil defence agency.“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he wrote on social media, adding that six Unrwa workers were among the dead. “These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”Israel’s military claimed its air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command-and-control centre” on the school grounds.An IDF spokesperson claimed that prior to the attack “a series of measures were taken to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties, including the use of precision weapons, the use of aerial imagery, and additional intelligence.”Here is a summary of the day’s other main news.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, has said that the staff who died in Wednesday’s attack had been providing support to families who had sought refuge in the school, and that at least 220 of his agency’s staff had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, a strike hit a home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters ranging from 21 months to 21 years old, according to the European hospital, which received the casualties.

Hamas said on Wednesday that its negotiators had reiterated their readiness to implement an “immediate” ceasefire with Israel in Gaza based on a previous US proposal without new conditions from any party. The group said in a statement that their negotiation team, led by senior official Khalil al-Hayya, had met mediators in Doha to discuss the latest developments in Gaza.

CIA director William Burns, who is also the chief US negotiator on Gaza, said on Saturday that a more detailed ceasefire proposal would be made in the next several days. The previous proposal put forward by president Joe Biden in June laid out a three-phase ceasefire in return for the release of Israeli hostages. However lingering issues, including control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow stretch of land on Gaza’s border with Egypt, remain.

Joe Biden has described the Israel Defense Force’s fatal shooting of the Turkish American protester Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi as “totally unacceptable” in his first extensive comments on her death. In a statement on Wednesday, Biden said that Israel had “acknowledged responsibility” for Eygi’s death, but he stopped short of backing the demands put out by Eygi’s family and other human rights advocates for an independent inquiry into the fatal shooting of the American activist at a protest in the West Bank town of Beita last week.
ShareUpdated at 10.02 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureIsrael claims school attack that killed Unrwa staff was aimed at Hamas command and control centreIsrael’s Arabic language military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has posted to social media a message he says is regarding “the allegations and lies” he claimed have been spread about the Israeli attack on the Jaouni school in Nuseirat.He claimed, without providing evidence in the post, that it was “formerly used” as a school but was “a Hamas command and control complex”. He claimed that “many of the names [of victims] published on social media and news channels belong to Hamas terrorists who were involved in terrorist activities against Israeli citizens and IDF forces.”He claimed that the IDF had repeatedly sought more information from Unrwa on the six staff killed in the attack, but said “it did not respond to these requests, which were repeatedly conveyed to it”. The claims have not been independently verified.#عاجل وبخصوص الادعاءات والأكاذيب عما حدث في #مدرسة_الجاعوني في النصيرات نوضح: 🔻استهدف جيش الدفاع يوم أمس بشكل دقيق وبتوجيه استخباري من هيئة الاستخبارات والشاباك والفرقة 252 مخربين عملوا داخل مجمع قيادة وسيطرة تابع لحماس داخل ما استخدم سابقًا كمدرسة الجاعوني في النصيرات وسط… pic.twitter.com/etjPeuXC0Q— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 12, 2024

Unrwa has said that six of its staff were killed in the attack, with the agency posting to social media to say “Among those killed was the manager of the Unrwa shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people. Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target.”Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said that it was the fifth time Israel has targeted the school since 7 October. He initially put the death toll of Unrwa workers killed at two, and said 18 people had been killed in total, and more than 18 others injured, including women and children.Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, has said that the staff who died in Wednesday’s attack had been providing support to families who had sought refuge in the school, and that at least 220 of his agency’s staff had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.In a statement Lazzarini lamented the “endless and senseless killing, day after day” in Gaza, adding “Humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war.”Reporting for Al Jazeera from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza where the dead were being received at a hospital for burial, Hani Mahmoud said the scenes were “heartbreaking” and “chaotic”. He reported for the network:
This is not the first time we’ve seen UN-run evacuation centres attacked. These facilities are marked, their coordinates shared with the Israeli military. They are known to have turned into shelters for displaced families. But the UN’s blue and white colours on the shelters is not protecting the people inside.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, and Israel’s military has not permitted foreign media to operate inside Gaza. None of the claims have been independently verified by journalists.ShareUpdated at 10.42 CESTReporting from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera has said that the scene at the hospital there where people are sayign farewell to loved ones killed in an Israeli strike yesterday on the UN-operated al-Jaouni school is “chaotic”.He writes:
People are bidding farewell to their relatives pronounced dead at the hospital. One person who is in critical condition was pulled from the hospital just to say goodbye to family members killed in the attack. It was a heartbreaking scene.
Women and children react during the funeral of a man who was killed by Israeli bombardment on the Jaouni school in Nuseirat the previous day. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty ImagesShareUpdated at 10.21 CESTThere are unconfirmed reports that Israel has killed two people in a drone strike inside Syria on the road from Quneitra in the Golan region to Damascus.ShareIsraeli media is reporting that overnight Israel’s security forces raided a hospital in Halhul, near Hebron, and arrested a suspect in an car bombing.Reports say that members of Israeli security forces were in civilian clothing when they entered the hospital to detain the main. Haaretz reports he has been taken by the Shin Bet for questioning. The suspect had been injured in a car bomb explosion on 13 August.ShareLocal media sources put the death toll from this morning’s Israeli attacks on Gaza at five. Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that three citizens were killed and others were injured after a family house was bombed in Jabalia camp. Two people were killed and others injured in the bombing of a street in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.Wafa also reports that Israeli forces “blew up residential buildings in the northern areas of al-Bureij camp” and alos carried out an airstrike on a house in al-Nuseirat camp.The claims have not been independently verified.ShareAl Jazeera reports that in the last couple of hours two people have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City in the north of Gaza. Additionally, there has been a reported airstrike on the Jabalia camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.ShareOvernight the IDF twice reported warning sirens sounding in Israel, once in northern Israel and once near the Gaza Strip. Both instances turned out to be false alarms.ShareUN chief condemns ‘violations’ of humanitarian law after six Unrwa staff killed in Israeli airstrikeHello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.UN chief António Guterres has condemned an Israeli airstrike on a central Gaza school being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians that killed 18 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s civil defence agency.“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he wrote on social media, adding that six Unrwa workers were among the dead. “These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”Israel’s military claimed its air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command-and-control centre” on the school grounds.An IDF spokesperson claimed that prior to the attack “a series of measures were taken to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties, including the use of precision weapons, the use of aerial imagery, and additional intelligence.”Here is a summary of the day’s other main news.