Israel raids UN agency in Gaza, orders evacuation of Gaza City

In a new offensive against the UN, Israel ordered the evacuation of Gaza City on Wednesday (10) and invaded the headquarters of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). The army dropped leaflets over the city asking residents to leave the region towards the south of the territory.

UNRWA is responsible for feeding and providing education to hundreds of thousands of people in the Palestinian territory.

Residents said IDF snipers had taken to the rooftops of buildings still standing in the area and the military had positioned tanks inside the headquarters. In a statement, the army said fighters from armed groups in the territory were operating from inside the agency’s premises.

In leaflets dropped by Israeli planes, the army orders the population to move to the south of the enclave, where its air forces bombed a school on Tuesday (9). The Gaza Health Ministry announced the deaths of at least 25 people.

The airstrike, confirmed by the Israeli military, hit an area adjacent to the al-Awda school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis — an area where civilians displaced from other conflict regions were camped.

The strike was the fourth in the past four days to directly hit or near an area used as shelter by people displaced by the conflict, according to a tally by the BBC. Before the southern strike, two UN schools in the Nuseirat refugee camp were hit by airstrikes, as well as a school in Gaza City. The back-to-back attacks have sparked an international outcry.

The Palestine Red Crescent, the Red Cross’s regional arm, said it had received dozens of calls from Gaza City residents trapped in their homes, but said its teams had been unable to reach them due to the intensity of the bombardment. “Residents are living in tragic conditions,” the organization said.

UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini spoke out condemning the attacks and demanding action from the international community.

“Since the war began, two-thirds of UNRWA schools in Gaza have been hit, some have been bombed and many have been severely damaged. Schools have gone from being safe places of education and hope for children to overcrowded shelters, often ending up as places of death and misery. Nine months later, under our watch, the relentless and unending killing, destruction and despair continue. Gaza is no place for children. Blatant disregard for international humanitarian law cannot become the new normal,” he wrote in a post on X.