In Nuseirat, in the middle of the Gaza Strip, all hell broke loose in the middle of the night. Shortly before 2:00 am on Thursday, June 6, a strike hit a school belonging to the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, located in the south of Gaza City. This large complex of buildings had become a shelter, a refuge for several thousand people displaced from other parts of the Palestinian enclave by the war, who had settled as best they could in the school's disused premises. The management of the Al-Aqsa hospital, located in Deir Al-Balah, near Nuseirat, which took in the wave of victims of the bombardment, reported on Thursday evening that at least 37 people had died, including three women and nine children.

For several days, Israeli military operations had been intensifying in this central region of Gaza, particularly between Bureij and Nuseirat, two refugee camps located a few kilometers apart. Most of the people in this area are internally displaced persons from other parts of Gaza that were targeted by Israeli army operations, undertaken in pursuit of Hamas members.

Karin Huster, a medical adviser for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, based at the Al-Aqsa hospital, called it an "insane escalation of hostilities" in a post on X, and described the situation as "apocalyptic." "This hospital is a sinking ship," she said. On Tuesday and Wednesday, even before the attack on the Nuseirat school, 70 dead and 300 wounded had been taken to the hospital.

On X, the head of the UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, pointed out that Thursday's strike had not been preceded by any "prior warning to the displaced or UNRWA." He said that "UNRWA shares the coordinates of all its facilities (including this school) with the Israeli Army and other parties to the conflict."

"Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law," wrote Lazzarini, adding that "over 180 UNRWA buildings were hit" since the start of the war in Gaza.

The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the airstrike on the grounds that the Nuseirat school housed "a Hamas base," and welcomed the fact that several "terrorists" perished in the blast. An army spokesman, Colonel Peter Lerner, told a press briefing that around 20 to 30 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were gathered in three classrooms at the time of the strike. However, Lerner provided no evidence to support these accusations.

"The school was sheltering 6,000 displaced people when it was hit. Claims that armed groups may have been inside the shelter are shocking," said Lazzarini, adding that he could not verify these claims. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, another Israeli army spokesman, claimed that nine "terrorists," some of whom had participated in the attack on October 7, 2023, were killed in the bombing. He promised to make their names public shortly. Hamas, for its part, said the strike was "a horrible massacre" and "clear evidence of genocide, ethnic cleansing" against the Palestinian people.

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