An Israeli attack on a United Nations school compound in Nuserat in the central Gaza corridor killed more than 30 people, including children, according to the director of a hospital in Gaza. Israel said it targeted members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were holed up in classrooms at two schools.
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TEL AVIV, Israel and NUSERAT, Gaza Corridor — The Israeli military improperly used a U.S.-made bomb during a deadly airstrike on a United Nations school compound in Gaza on Thursday. NPR documented bomb remnants at the scene.
The munition used was a GBU-39 small diameter bomb, according to Pentagon officials and former U.S. Air Force officials. According to reports, this is the same bomb New York TimesLast month, Israel used the weapon in an airstrike that killed dozens of displaced civilians at a tent camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an incident Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “tragedy.” sexual accident”.
Israeli forces said they targeted a group of militants inside two classrooms at a United Nations school in Nuserat, a refugee camp in central Gaza. But the 2 a.m. attack killed at least 32 people, including seven children, according to Dr. Khalil Doqran, director of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
Families displaced by the war are taking refuge in schools. In the hospital morgue, NPR documented a body bag labeled with the body parts of five children.
An injured man sits outside the scene of damage caused by an Israeli attack on a United Nations school in Nuserat, central Gaza.
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The Israeli military said it targeted militants involved in a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7 and was planning attacks from inside the school. Army spokesman Peter Lerner said the military canceled the strikes twice to minimize collateral damage and that he was not aware of any civilian casualties in the strikes.
Pentagon officials told NPR that Israel used the bomb inappropriately because the bomb was intended to cause low collateral damage but resulted in numerous casualties.
“Israel is using the most advanced, most precise and most effective bombs produced by the United States like a club,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Israel’s actions.
Former Air Force official Wes Bryant said the U.S. military would likely call off such an attack if militants were holed up in a U.N. school housing displaced civilians because civilian casualties are expected to be high.
“What strikes me most about these recent IDF attacks is that [Israeli military]”The reason why again, so many civilians are dying is because they’re using munitions that are both accurate and have low collateral damage, but they’re not using them in a way that’s consistent with those qualities,” said Veteran Bryant. Master Chief and former Special Operations Joint Terminal Attack Controller in the United States Air Force’s elite Special Operations branch.
The aftermath of the Israeli attack on a United Nations school in Nuserat, central Gaza.
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The U.S. State Department called on Israel to release the names of those killed in the airstrike.
The Israeli military declined NPR’s request for comment on the type of munitions used but revealed the names of nine militants it said were killed in the attack.
The UN school in Nuserat is providing shelter to families who have been displaced multiple times: those who fled northern Gaza for Rafah in southern Gaza at the start of the war, and those who later fled the Israeli offensive on Rafah and came to the UN school. .
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees, said the school compound is currently hosting 6,000 displaced people.
“The claims that armed groups may be inside the shelter are alarming. However, we are unable to verify these claims,” he said in a statement on social media platform X.
Relatives told NPR that a family arrived at the school two weeks ago and was killed while sleeping.
After the strike, the school courtyard was covered with rubble and the school stairs were stained with blood. Two boys remained in the school compound with injuries to their heads and legs. Children were collecting wood from the rubble for firewood, and U.N. officials were working to repair doors and windows in the compound for families still sheltering there.
Relatives mourn family members killed in the airstrike.
NPR’s Anas Baba
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A mother grieves over her dead son’s body at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. A new Israeli offensive in central Gaza has killed more than 140 people since Wednesday, the hospital director said.
“The scene in the emergency room of Al-Aqsa hospital is worse than yesterday. They had no chance to regroup from … yesterday’s events and now they have suffered mass casualties,” said a medical adviser to the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders at the hospital Karin Hast said. “The patient was lying on the floor. There was blood everywhere… The bodies were not taken to the morgue because the morgue was overwhelmed.
NPR’s Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv; NPR Producer Anas Baba reported from Gaza.
NPR’s Tom Bowman and Aya Batrawy contributed to this story.
