Israel-Hamas war: Israeli forces attack UN aid centre, kill scores, injure many in Gaza

Israel-Hamas war: Israeli forces attack UN aid centre, kill scores, injure many in Gaza

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says a member of staff was killed and 22 others were injured when Israeli forces hit a food distribution centre in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said attacks on its facilities had “become commonplace in blatant disregard to international humanitarian law”.

The health ministry said an Israeli air strike killed five people.

Rafah is crammed with an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians who are seeking shelter from Israel’s ground offensive elsewhere in Gaza.

The UN’s secretary general has warned that a threatened Israeli assault on the city could “plummet the people of Gaza into an even deeper circle of hell”.

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More than 31,200 people have been killed in Gaza in the military campaign that Israel launched, according to the health ministry.

Wednesday’s strike reportedly hit the eastern side of the UNRWA food distribution centre, which is in the eastern part of Rafah.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told the BBC that up to 60 people were believed to have been working at the facility, which also served as a warehouse for food and other critical supplies.

“We know that it is the Israeli forces who were responsible. Our teams were on site and they reported back the casualties,” she said.

Pictures of the aftermath showed a pool of blood in a courtyard outside a blue-and-white painted warehouse, and another pool just inside the doorway of the building, next to boxes of aid.

Israel-Hamas war: Israeli forces attack UN aid centre, kill scores, injure many in Gaza