Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas militants in a strike on a UN building in Jabalia refugee camp Wednesday that Gaza’s civil defence agency said killed 19 people, nine of them children.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which “targeted an UNRWA building housing a medical clinic”.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was not immediately able to confirm the strike.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the “massacre at the UNRWA clinic in Jabalia”, calling for “serious international pressure” to halt Israel’s widening offensive.
Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.
It also conducted air strikes on southern and central Gaza on Wednesday that the civil defence agency said killed at least 15 people, including children, in the city of Khan Yunis and Nuseirat refugee camp.