At least forty people were killed and 73 wounded after last night's Israeli attack on a school run by the United Nations in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central the Gaza Strip, the director of the Hamas-led Gaza government's media office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, and an official from the Gaza health ministry said.
The two officials added that 14 children and 9 women were killed in the attack.
The Israeli army (IDF) estimated that the school United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRVA) finds 20 to 30 Hamas fighters hit by an airstrike in the early hours of the morning, Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said. Reuters reports that he said many Hamas fighters were killed in the attack, adding that he was not aware of any civilian casualties. As the British "Guardian" writes, the IDF claims that Hamas uses the site as a military compound.
The director of the Hamas media office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, rejects Israel's claims that the United Nations school hid a Hamas command post.
"The occupier is using false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it has committed against dozens of displaced people," he told the Reuters news agency.
Al Jazeera reports that Israel has "still not provided any evidence" that members of the extremist group Hamas were at the school.
Unicef: 90 percent of children in Gaza do not have enough food needed for proper development
UNICEF announced that 90 percent of children in the Gaza Strip do not have enough food needed for proper and healthy growth and development, warning that malnutrition among children can lead to life-threatening consequences.
It is said that in the Gaza Strip, due to several months of war conflicts and reduced amounts of humanitarian aid, the food supply system, as well as the health system, have collapsed, which has caused catastrophic consequences for children and their families.
UNICEF points out that 90 percent of children in the Gaza Strip survive on one or two groups of nutritious foods a day.
"Children must consume foods from at least five of the eight food groups, including breast milk, eggs, dairy products, meat and fish," UNICEF said.
Ministry of Health: Thousands of people are barred from treatment outside Gaza
A statement from the Gaza Ministry of Health states that the number of sick and wounded Palestinians who need to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment has reached 25.000. It added that since May 12, around the time Israel captured the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and the crossing was closed, "not a single sick or wounded person has been able to leave the Gaza Strip."
By the time the Rafah crossing was closed, only 4895 people had managed to leave Gaza, the ministry said.
"This puts at risk the lives of thousands of people who can only be treated and saved if they are allowed to go to specialized centers outside the Gaza Strip," the statement said.
The United Nations, in a report released on Wednesday, warned that at least one million Palestinians will reach peak levels of hunger by mid-July. Severe restrictions on the flow of food, water, fuel and medical aid are worsening the situation in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a joint report.
The administration of President Joe Biden is trying to persuade the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a US interim peace deal that would lead to a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Far-right members of the Israeli government are threatening to oust her if Netanyahu agrees to any ceasefire "before Israel completely destroys Hamas."
