Israeli strikes kill 20, Palestinian medics say, as military orders evacuations
Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, local health workers said, as the Israeli military unleashed more bombardments of the enclave and ordered residents to evacuate combat zones.
The United Nations said a foreign staffer was killed and five other workers were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the site of a UN headquarters in central Gaza City.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director of the U.N. office for Project Services, said, "Israel knew that this was a UN premises, that people were living, staying and working there, it is a compound. It is a very well-known place.
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An explosive device was dropped or fired on the premises, he told a press conference in Brussels.
"This was not an accident," he said. "What's happening in Gaza is unconscionable."
The Israeli military denied it had struck the UN compound in Deir al-Balah. It said it had hit a Hamas site in northern Gaza where it had detected preparations for firing into Israeli territory.
The renewed bloodshed followed one of the deadliest days so far in the Israeli assault on the Palestinian territory, with Israeli airstrikes killing more than 400 people on Tuesday, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The fighting ended weeks of relative calm since a ceasefire in January largely paused the war between Israeli forces and Hamas and other militants. Israel said the onslaught was "just the beginning".
Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching the truce, which had offered a respite for Gaza's 2.3 million residents after 17 months of war that has reduced the enclave to rubble and forced most of its population to evacuate multiple times.
The Israeli campaign has killed more than 49,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, fuel and water.
Israel has accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of indiscriminate bombings.
The war - the most devastating episode in decades of Israel- Palestinian conflict - was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which gunmen killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
