A video shows dozens of bodies after the alleged attack on a UN-run school in Gaza

CNN
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The United Nations confirmed on Saturday that a UN-run school in northern Gaza suffered what appeared to be devastating damage, in what a senior UN official described as a “horrific” incident.

Video from Al Fakhoura School in Jabalia – which was being used as a shelter for displaced people – shows bloodied bodies across a series of rooms on two floors of the two-storey building. There are many women and children among the dead.

One of the rooms appears to contain about a dozen bodies lying on the floor covered in dust. The desks were scattered and broken, and a large hole could be seen in one of the walls of the room. In the building’s courtyard, the canopy roof above a metal structure appears to have been torn off, and debris can be seen on the ground.

Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which runs schools in Palestinian refugee camps and serves as the main UN relief agency in Gaza, confirmed the incident. She added that the total number of victims is still unclear, as information is still coming in.

Touma was unable to confirm the cause of the accident nor who was responsible.

UNRWA Director General Philippe Lazzarini, who described the images as “horrifying” in a post on the X website (formerly Twitter), said: Thousands of displaced people He was taking shelter there at the time of the accident.

He told CNN that the IDF was reviewing the incident, but had no further comment.

Egypt and Qatar have already blamed the Israeli military campaign in the devastated Strip for the incident. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described what happened as a “bombing,” and said it was the latest in a series of Israeli violations against civilians in Gaza.

She said goodbye to Qatar Independent investigators From the United Nations to go to Gaza to examine what it described as “the ongoing targeting of schools and hospitals.”

The agency said that Saturday’s incident was the second in twenty-four hours in which an UNRWA school in northern Gaza was bombed. Touma told CNN that another school in Zaytoun was housing 4,000 people when it was bombed several times on Friday.

She added that there were reports that ambulances were unable to reach the school, which she said was likely due to the fighting and a communications blackout.

Dozens of people were likely killed in this incident, according to Lazzarini, who wrote: “These attacks cannot become common, they must stop.” He added that a humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer.

This is a developing story and will be updated.