IDF strikes UN school in central Gaza where it says dozens of terrorists were gathered

Army says 20-30 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were in three classrooms, separate from area where civilians sheltering

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

A UN school housing displacing Palestinians that was hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 6, 2024. The IDF said it hit a compound where Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were gathered, killing many of them. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)
A UN school housing displacing Palestinians that was hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 6, 2024. The IDF said it hit a compound where Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were gathered, killing many of them. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces carried out an airstrike on what it said was a compound used by dozens of Hamas fighters inside a United Nations school in central Gaza before dawn on Thursday.

The IDF said it took extensive precautions to reduce harm to civilians in the “precise strike” on the compound embedded within a UNRWA school in Nuseirat, where 20-30 terrorists, some of whom participated in the October 7 onslaught, were gathered.

Palestinian civilians displaced by the war were also sheltering at the school.

According to the military, the members of the terror groups were struck while gathered in three classrooms, separate from an area where civilians were sheltering.

The Hamas-run government media office claimed at least 27 people were killed in what it termed the Israeli “massacre.” UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters that the number of those reported killed in the Israeli offensive on the Nuseirat school was between 35 and 45, but the number could not confirmed at this stage, she added.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in an evening press conference said the military had identified at least nine Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives killed in the strike.

Hagari said the military was working to identify the other terrorists who were killed in the attack.

“Some of these terrorists participated in the massacre on October 7. We will pursue anyone who participated in October 7,” he said.

The IDF said the compound was used by members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force who took part in the terror group’s October 7 massacre in Israel, in which some 1,200 were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

The army said the terrorists, along with members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, “directed terror attacks from the area of the school, while exploiting it as a civilian location and as shelter.”

This infographic published by the military on June 6, 2024, shows a United Nations school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, where the IDF says it struck a Hamas compound. (Israel Defense Forces)

“The strike eliminated terrorists who had planned to carry out terror attacks and advance imminent terror schemes against our forces,” the IDF said, adding that “many steps were taken before the strike to minimize the risk of harm to uninvolved people” — including analyzing aerial footage and using precise intelligence.

The strike had been postponed twice as the military said it worked to fine-tune the plan to avoid harming civilians, according to information seen by The Times of Israel.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using schools, UN offices and other civilian infrastructure in the Strip, including where civilians are sheltering, for terror activity.

A UN school housing displacing Palestinians that was hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 6, 2024. The IDF said it hit a compound where Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were gathered. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Attempted infiltration

Hours after the strike, the military said it killed three terrorists who attempted to cross into Israel from the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip. One soldier, Warrant Officer Zeed Mazarib, 34, a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, from the northern Bedouin-majority city of Zarzir, was killed amid the exchange.

The attempted infiltration began at around 4 a.m., when soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras spotted suspicious movement amid foggy weather, according to an initial IDF probe.

Warrant Officer Zeed Mazarib, killed battling Hamas terrorists in the southern Gaza Strip, close to the border, on June 6, 2024. (Courtesy)

Troops of the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion — a unit under the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, mostly made up of Bedouin soldiers —  were dispatched to the scene, in Gaza, just across from the Israeli border communities of Kerem Shalom and Holit, to search for the suspects.

At around 5 a.m., the soldiers came under fire by the cell, around 400 meters from the Israeli border. The soldiers had returned fire at the terrorists, and in the exchange, Mazarib was killed.

Moments later, two of the gunmen were killed in a drone strike, and a short time after that, a third was killed by tank shelling, the IDF said.

The cell was armed with assault rifles and RPGs, according to the probe.

Troops of the 401st Armored Brigade operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah, in a handout image published May 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

A military source said the IDF was investigating whether there was a fourth terrorist who may have fled the scene. The IDF said no suspects crossed the barrier into Israel amid the incident.

The IDF was also investigating how the gunmen reached the border area, where they were detected.

Also Thursday, the Bislamach Brigade — the IDF’s School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders in peacetime — was withdrawn from southern Gaza’s Rafah after a week and a half of operations.

The IDF said the brigade would now prepare for additional operations.

This week, troops of the Bislamach Brigade discovered a tunnel shaft in a child’s bedroom, the military said.

The IDF said the troops also discovered a cache of weapons, including explosive devices stored inside bags bearing the United Nations logo.

Troops of the Bislamach Brigade operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah, in a handout photo published June 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 36,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. Of these, some 24,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals or through self-reporting by families, with the rest of the figure based on Hamas “media sources.” The tolls, which cannot be verified, include some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

The IDF has said 295 soldiers have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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