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Unsolved case · 2024
Israel outline northwest negevCredit: Ynhockey·CC BY-SA 3.0·Source
The short answer
On 17 October 2024, an Israeli airstrike hit the UNRWA-run Abu Hussein primary school, which was being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza, killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 160.
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Suggest coverage for October 2024 Abu Hussein School AttackThe case file
On 17 October 2024, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck the Abu Hussein primary school, a facility run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that had been converted into a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the Gaza war. The school is located in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. According to reporting on the strike, at least 28 Palestinians were killed and more than 160 others were wounded.
The strike occurred amid a broader IDF ground offensive in Jabalia, which had begun on 5 October 2024. The stated aim of that offensive was to eliminate Hamas militants that Israel said were regrouping in the area. Israel also imposed a siege on Jabalia and restricted the entry of humanitarian aid, a situation the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations described as "a genocide within genocide."
The IDF said the airstrike targeted militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who it said were operating from within the school building. The Israeli military named 18 men it accused of carrying out rocket attacks and attacking IDF soldiers. Israel stated that it had taken steps to reduce civilian harm, including using aerial surveillance and a precision munition in the strike.
Hamas rejected the Israeli claim that the school had been used for military purposes, describing the allegation as "nothing but lies" and calling it part of a "systematic policy of the enemy to justify its crime." The director of Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia said the facility was too small to receive all of the people injured in the strike, and that most of those brought in were women and children. He also said there was no water available to extinguish resulting fires and characterized the attack as a massacre. Several tents at the site caught fire, producing rising smoke. A Gaza health ministry official said, "Civilians and children are being killed, burned under fire." At least five children were reported killed in the strike.
2 dated entries · 2024
The IDF launched a new ground offensive in Jabalia, northern Gaza, stating the goal was to eliminate regrouping Hamas militants; Israel imposed a siege and restricted aid to the area.
The IDF bombed the UNRWA-run Abu Hussein primary school, being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 160.
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