Hamas-run Gaza authorities claim 14 killed in strike on UN-run shelter; IDF okays 300 trucks of UAE aid

Authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip say Israel struck a school-turned-shelter run by the United Nations in Gaza City, killing 14 people and wounding dozens of others.

The Israeli military does not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack that hit a UNRWA facility in the Shati refugee camp, just west of Gaza City along the Mediterranean coast.

In recent months, Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes on schools across the embattled enclave, structures where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by fighting have sought refuge. Israel says Hamas fighters use schools and other protected humanitarian sites as cover, turning Palestinian civilians and aid workers into human shields.

Shortly after the strike, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of Shati camp among other neighborhoods west of Gaza City, spreading panic among Palestinians who in recent days had sought refuge in those areas from Israel’s renewed offensive against Hamas further north.

Meanwhile, the army says it will allow 300 truckloads of humanitarian aid supplied by the United Arab Emirates to enter the Strip in the coming days.

That’s less than the 350 trucks per day that the United States has said it wants to see enter the war-ravaged territory.

COGAT, the military body in charge of civilian affairs in Gaza, says the aid was brought in by sea and unloaded at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just north of Gaza. It says the shipment, which includes food, water, medical equipment, shelter and hygiene supplies, will be inspected before being trucked into Gaza, though it does not specify a date.