Michael Hernandez
06 June 2024•Update: 06 June 2024
WASHINGTON
Israel must be "transparent" about a strike it conducted on a UN school-turned-makeshift-shelter where thousands of people had sought refuge, the State Department said Thursday.
Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US has been in contact with Israel about the attack, and said Tel Aviv should "release more information about this strike, including the names of those who died in it," adding: "We expect them to be fully transparent in making that information public."
"They have said to us essentially what they have said publicly, which is that, and this is this is their claim, that they were targeting 20 to 30 members of Hamas and other militant groups, that they used a precision strike to target only one part of the building without hitting areas where civilians were sheltering," he said. "At the same time, we've seen the reports on the ground, we've seen the videos from the ground, we've seen the claims that 14 children were killed in the strike, and certainly if that is accurate, that 14 children were killed, those aren't terrorists.”
He could not confirm if US weapons were used in the strike, though multiple media outlets reported, based on analysis of video from the scene, that they were used.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said Thursday that the strike killed 35 people and left "many more injured" when it struck the facility without any prior warning to the 6,000 people who were sheltering.
"Another horrific day in Gaza. Another UNRWA school turned shelter attacked. This time in Nuseirat, in the Middle Areas, hit overnight by the Israeli Forces without prior warning to the displaced or UNRWA," he wrote on X.
"Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law. UN staff, premises and operations must be protected at all times," he added.
The Israeli military admitted hitting the UNRWA school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, claiming Hamas fighters were hiding inside.
Lazzarini said the UN is "unable to verify these claims."
Israel has continued its sweeping offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, Hamas attack that killed less than 1,200 people.
More than 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities. Vast tracts of Gaza also lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
