The U.S. secretary of state said Thursday that the United States will continue to press Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in the Gaza Strip, a day after an Israeli airstrike on a U.N. school complex sheltering displaced Palestinians killed 14 people, including six U.N. staffers.
Meanwhile, Turkey announced its own investigation into the death of a Turkish American activist from Seattle who was shot and killed by Israeli forces last week while protesting settlements in the occupied West Bank. And a Syrian pro-government media outlet and an opposition war monitor said an Israeli strike hit a car in southern Syria on Thursday, killing two people.
In Warsaw, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States will continue to urge Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli airstrike on a U.N. school complex sheltering displaced Palestinians killed six U.N. staffers.
When asked on Thursday at a news conference in the Polish capital about Israel’s bombing of the school complex in central Gaza the day before, Blinken told reporters that “we need to see humanitarian sites protected.”
“That’s something we continue to raise with Israel,” he said.
Wednesday’s strike on the U.N.-supported al-Jaouni Preparatory Boys School in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman, hospital officials said. Among those killed were six staffers from the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, the main U.N. relief agency in Gaza.
UNRWA described the strike as the deadliest single incident for its staff members. Among those killed at the school, it said, were the manager of the shelter and others working to help the thousands of displaced people taking refuge there, including teachers.
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said at least 220 UNRWA staffers have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive began in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas militants planning attacks from inside the school.
Blinken blamed Hamas for continuing to hide its fighters among civilians and said the bombing “underscores the urgency” of reaching a cease-fire in the embattled territory.
The Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. They abducted another 250 and are still holding around 100. Around a third of them are believed to be dead.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said Thursday that it has completed the destruction of Hamas’ brigade in the city of Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza.
The military said in a statement that Israel had killed 2,000 militants and destroyed of underground tunnel routes dug deep under the area. It also said that it had killed over 250 militants in Rafah’s western Tel al-Sultan district in recent weeks, including the commander of the battalion and most of the chain of command.
Also Thursday, the Israeli military says that a top Israeli intelligence commander has announced his resignation, the second such senior figure to step down amid the fallout from Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel last year.
In a statement Thursday, the Israeli military said that Brig. Gen. Yossi Sariel, leader of Israel’s vaunted military intelligence Unit 8200, notified the army of his plans to step down and leave his post “in the near future.”
Earlier this year, the head of Israeli military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, announced his resignation over his role in the army’s stunning failure to anticipate or quickly respond to the deadliest assault in Israel’s history.
