UN Secretary General Condemns Deadly Attack On School In Gaza, US Says Israel Has The Right To Attack Hamas

UNRWA school conditions in Gaza. (Twitter/@UNLazzarini)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the deadly airstrike against a school of humanitarian aid agencies that killed dozens of people in Gaza, while the United States said it could understand Israel's attack on Hamas but there were things to watch out for.

The school, managed by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), houses displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the time of the incident, Gaza's state media office said.

Among the dozens of people killed in the pre-dawn attack, 14 of them were children, according to Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General.

"The Secretary-General calls on all parties to respect and protect civilians, and ensure their basic needs are met, in accordance with international humanitarian law," Dujarric said.

"He repeated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and immediate release and unconditionally for all hostages detained in Gaza," he continued.

Secretary General Guterres "underlined that the UN territory cannot be contested, including during armed conflict and must be protected by all parties at any time," Dujarric said.

Separately, the United States government under President Joe Biden has no "independent verification of what really happened", but is talking to Israel to "try to get a better understanding," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby said Israel had "the right to attack Hamas" but "the way they do it is important."

"They really have the right to attack Hamas and we know Hamas is sheltering in civilian facilities and digging tunnels under houses and things like that. But the way they do it is important," Kirby said.

"We clearly don't want to see any civilian casualties. So all this is new and fresh and we are trying to get as much information as possible from Israel."

As previously reported, at least 40 people were killed, including 14 of them children, in airstrikes against UNRWA schools (BP Aid and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East) in Nuseirat.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said the school houses 6,000 refugees when hit without any prior warning to UNRWA or people living there.

On the other hand, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Yahwi said Israeli intelligence was confident that the Hamas fighters who took part in the October 7 attack operated from within three school classrooms of the United Nations Aid and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) at Nuseirat Camp, Gaza.

Laksda airinggi mengatakan, militer Israel telah mengidentifikasi sembilan orang yang diduga perjuangan Hamas dan Jihad Islam yang menjadi sasaran serangan itu.

He further said the IDF believed there were "about 30" Hamas fighters and Islamic Jihad who were hiding inside UN schools, however, he did not provide further evidence or information about how the IDF came to this conclusion.

"The terrorists inside the school are planning more attacks on Israelis, some of which will soon occur. We are stopping the time bomb that continues to beat," said Laksdatip.

He said Israeli forces, who used air reconnaissance for several days, had delayed attacks on the school twice because they had identified civilians in the area.

"We carried out the attack after intelligence and surveillance we showed no women or children inside the Hamas complex inside the classroom," Laksda kazi said, accusing Hamas of violating international law.