At least 308 people seeking shelter at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been killed and at least 1,095 others have been injured since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, the agency announced. He said Friday on Xformerly known as Twitter.
UNRWA also indicated that “initial reports indicated on December 25 that there were two people taking shelter there.” @UNRWA Al-Maghazi Preparatory School was martyred and another was injured as a result of a direct strike.”
CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.
In a statement sent to CNN on Thursday, the Israeli military said that during “operations in the Gaza Strip against Hamas terrorist targets, Israeli Air Force fighter jets bombed two adjacent targets near which Hamas activists were located on December 24, 2023.”
The raids targeted targets in the Maghazi refugee camp. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, about 70 people were killed in the raids.
The Israeli army acknowledged what it called “unintended harm” to civilians as a result of air strikes on central Gaza on December 24.
“Before carrying out the strikes, the IDF took steps to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians in the area. A preliminary investigation revealed that additional buildings located close to the targets were also struck during the strikes, likely causing unintended harm to more uninvolved civilians.
The IDF said the strikes would be subject to further investigation by the General Staff’s Fact-Finding and Evaluation Mechanism. She said that the Israeli army regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians and is working to draw conclusions and learn lessons from this event.
More on the situation on the ground: Nearly 1.4 million displaced people live in 156 UNRWA facilities, with an additional 500,000 registered and accessing UNRWA services, according to the agency’s statement on its official website on Wednesday.
UNRWA also said that the average number of internally displaced persons in UNRWA shelters located in the central and southern regions is more than 12,000 people, adding, “This is more than four times their capacity.”
The Israeli military on Thursday warned residents in many parts of central Gaza to leave urgently while its operations against Hamas continue. The Israeli military issued a message in Arabic on X, formerly Twitter, ordering people in 15 identified buildings south of Wadi Gaza to move to shelters. These areas include Bureij refugee camp.
The lack of communications and Internet access in Gaza, which has deteriorated due to Israeli air strikes, makes it difficult to assess how many residents will be aware of what the Israeli military calls “urgent instructions.”
