UN staff fear they are ‘a target’ as Israel attacks Gaza shelters

“A staff member's son had brought a meal into the building,” Rose said, adding that the group subsequently discussed whether to eat the meal in the principal's office before settling on a room that looked like a classroom decorated with pictures of scientists.

“They were eating when the bomb hit.”

The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precise strike” against Hamas fighters on the school premises and taken steps to reduce the danger to civilians.

“Desperate and desperate”

The Israeli military released a list of nine militants killed in the Nuseirat attack, including three who were allegedly UNRWA employees.

An Israeli government spokesman said the school had become a “legitimate target” because it was used by Hamas for attacks.

Rose said such statements had further dented the morale of UN staff remaining at the school, thousands of whom have sought refuge there from a war that has forced nearly all of Gaza's 2.4 million residents to flee at least once.

“They were particularly angry about allegations that their colleagues were involved in extremist and terrorist activities,” Rose said.

“They felt that this was truly a stain on the memory of dear colleagues and dear friends,” he added, describing the mood as “sad” and “desperate.”

According to UNRWA, at least 220 of the agency's employees have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The attack killed 1,205 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

The militants also captured 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still in Gaza. According to the Israeli military, 33 of them are dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, at least 41,182 people were killed in Israel's retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced that one of its staff members had been killed in an Israeli attack in the occupied West Bank, the first such death in the territory in over a decade.

UNRWA employs over 30,000 staff in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere.

It has been in crisis since Israel accused a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 attacks.

The UN immediately fired the staff involved and an investigation revealed some “neutrality-related issues,” but stressed that Israel had not provided any evidence for its main allegations.