The Israeli military has confirmed that it bombed a UN school shelter in what appears to be the same attack that has killed at least 29 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel’s military said its fighter jets attacked a UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) school that was being used by the “terrorist organisation Hamas”.

“The terrorists directed terror from the area of ​​the school, using it as a civilian location and shelter. In the attack, terrorists were eliminated who were planning to carry out attacks and to promote terrorism against our forces in the immediate time frame,” the Israeli military said in a post on X.

The military added that “many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harm to those not involved”.

Earlier we reported that many women and children had been killed after an Israeli military strike on a school, which was housing thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

US Nurse Reflects On Harrowing Experience Treating Burn Victims In Gaza

IDF DROPS 75K TONS OF BOMBS ON GAZA; CONGRESS SANCTIONS ICC; ISRAEL ANNEXING WEST BANK?

The White House has put out a joint statement regarding the ceasefire deal outlined by US President Biden.

The statement, attributed to the leaders of the United States, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom, says the countries’ leaders “fully support the movement towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal now on the table and as outlined by President Biden on May 31, 2024”.

The statement claimed that “Israel is ready to move forward with the agreement” and called on Hamas to accept it and begin the process of releasing captives.

The proposal, which calls for a six-week ceasefire in phase one before a transition to a permanent ceasefire, has drawn mixed messages from Israeli officials, with Netanyahu claiming he is still committed to “eliminating” Hamas before ending the war.

The statement goes on to say that the Biden-outlined ceasefire deal is the “necessary starting point” to end the war and calls on both Israel and Hamas to make whatever comprises are necessary to finalise it.

“This agreement would lead to an immediate ceasefire and rehabilitation of Gaza together with security assurances for Israelis, and Palestinians, and opportunities for a more enduring long-term peace and a two-state solution,” says the statement.

“It is time for the war to end and this deal is the necessary starting point,” it adds.

Joint statement puts pressure on Israel, Hamas, but still ‘no breakthrough’

Ben-Gvir calls for war against Hezbollah

Hadja Lahbib has called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli attack on a UNRWA school in Nuseirat killed at least 40 people in the early hours of this morning.

“The devastating airstrike on a UNRWA school in #Gaza is an appalling and unacceptable act of violence,” she wrote on X. “All parties must respect civilian infrastructure … This tragedy reminds us of the urgency to end the violence.”

A ceasefire now !

The devastating airstrike on a #UNRWA school in #Gaza is an appalling and unacceptable act of violence.

All parties must respect civilian infrastructure.

This tragedy reminds us of the urgency to end the violence.

— Hadja Lahbib (@hadjalahbib) June 6, 2024

Death toll from Nuseirat school strike rises to 40

‘Severe’ child food poverty in Gaza

UNRWA sounds alarm on disease danger in Gaza

The Israeli army say they are very clear who the target was. They say Hamas fighters were in the UN school in the middle of Nuseirat refugee camp. They provided no evidence for any of this.

The army used air strikes to hit that UN school. They knew it was a UN school. They admitted it was a UN school. They know it is a place where displaced Palestinians have been staying.

Israelis are briefing local Israeli media, saying they suspected some of the people behind the October 7 attack on Israel were staying there. That’s language that we’ve heard a lot before.

Right now, we’re in this kind of “he-said, she-said”. The Israeli army is very clear, saying, “We believe that Hamas was in that school and in that refugee camp,” but not providing any single shred of evidence.

Aftermath of Israeli strike on UNRWA school in Nuseirat refugee camp

UNRWA school attack survivor: ‘The area was shelled with a belt of fire’

Retired Israeli Major General Itzhak Brick has written a scathing indictment of the Israeli military in an op-ed published in the Maariv newspaper on Thursday. Brick said:

• While there is “tremendous pressure” from community leaders in northern Israel to attack Hezbollah, they are ignorant of the fact that the Israeli military is in a “dire situation”.
• An Israeli military attack “against Hezbollah in full force could bring terrible destruction to the whole of Israel”.
• Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi are “not prepared to acknowledge the army’s weakness and impotence”.
• Israel needs two years to “rebuild the army” before it’s in a position to attack Hezbollah.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gallant and Halevy “have nothing left to lose, and are ready to gamble on the fate of the country”.

More raids, arrests in West Bank

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles says the Israeli attack on a UN-run school in Nuseirat refugee camp “must be independently investigated, in line with the last ICJ [International Court of Justice] order”.

“Reports coming from Gaza time and again show that violence and suffering are still the only reality for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians,” he said on X. “An enduring ceasefire is the only way forward to protect civilians and get to the immediate release of all hostages.”

South Africa brought allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to the ICJ in January. The UN’s top court has ordered Israel to halt its attacks and allow aid to enter the besieged territory, something Israel has ignored.



And the US is responsible again

Israel strike on UN school that left dozens dead used US munitions, CNN analysis finds

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/06/middleeast/israel-airstrike-un-school-gaza-intl-hnk/index.html

Dozens of people were killed by an overnight Israeli airstrike on a United Nations-run school in central Gaza, authorities said, in an attack that CNN analysis found was conducted with a US-made weapon.

The school, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), was housing displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the time of the incident, the Gaza government media office said.

At least 40 people were killed in the strike, according to medical workers at the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Authorities at the hospital said casualties could rise as victims were still being brought to the hospital on Thursday morning.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the airstrike, which it said targeted a Hamas compound operating inside the school. Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner later told journalists the military was not “aware of any civilian casualties.”

Lerner said “20 to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad” militants were targeted in the strike, and that those targeted were “using the facilities to plan and execute attacks” against Israeli forces. Militants who were involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel were among those killed, Lerner said. Later on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had so far identified nine of 30 alleged militants.

CNN cannot independently verify any of those claims.

A CNN analysis of video from the scene and a review by an explosive weapons expert found that US-made munitions were used in the strike on the school. CNN identified fragments of at least two US-made GBU-39 small diameter bombs (SDB) in video filmed at the scene by a journalist working for CNN.

It marks the second time in two weeks that CNN has been able to verify the use of US-manufactured munitions in deadly Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinians, the first being a deadly IDF strike on a displacement camp in Rafah on May 26.

Asked whether American weapons were used in the strike, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday that was a question for the Israeli government.

Miller said the US has been in contact with Israel over the strike and that Israel has only told the US “essentially what they have said publicly.” He added that the Israeli government would release more information, which the US expects to be “fully transparent.”

According to a journalist in the area working with CNN, the school was hit by at least three missiles that penetrated the three-story building. The facility was believed to be housing thousands of displaced people who had taken shelter in the school, its yard, and the surrounding area, according to the journalist. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the school was sheltering about 6,000 displaced people.

“We were asleep here, (and) we suddenly saw rockets falling. I went down holding my child, we were both injured, my relative was martyred in that room,” journalist Jaber Abu Daher told CNN on Thursday.

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is killing the civilians, he is not killing militants, it’s innocent people asleep in a UNRWA facility… what did children and elderly do? What did they do to him? He is looking for Hamas people? Go look for them, why are you killing us in schools?”


One thing this genocidal war has made clear, I'll never trust anything the US or Israel government says ever again. Lies upon lies upon lies.

There won't be an independent probe, US and Israel will agree on some bullshit story and leave it at that. Next week the same thing will happen again and again and again and again.

_{Displaced Palestinians walk in the courtyard of a destroyed UNRWA school after an Israeli air strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 6}

The US State Department has imposed sanctions on the “Lion’s Den” Palestinian armed group in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In a statement announcing the action, spokesperson Matthew Miller cited attacks by the group on Israelis, as well as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2022. The statement did not name any individuals subject to sanctions.

The emergence of the Lions’ Den comes as public support for armed resistance increases among Palestinians. While its roots go back to February 2022, the Lions’ Den formally emerged in September 2023.

Inside the Lions’ Den: Will Palestinian resistance keep growing?

Nablus’ Old City has emerged as a hub of armed resistance in the occupied West Bank, which Israel wants to crush.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/11/11/inside-the-lions-den-where-is-palestinian-resistance-headed

In March 2022, following a string of attacks by Palestinians that killed 19 people in Israel, the Israeli army launched an operation it calls Break the Wave, through which it is attempting to crush a phenomenon of growing armed resistance, particularly in Nablus and Jenin, by carrying out near-daily raids, killings and arrests in the two northern West Bank cities.

Israel’s three-day assault on the blockaded Gaza Strip in August, in which at least 49 Palestinians, including 17 children, were killed, was also conducted as part of that campaign.

The emergence of the Lions’ Den comes as public support for armed resistance increases among Palestinians. It is not the first new armed group to emerge: In September 2021, the Jenin Brigades, affiliated mostly with the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), announced itself. In May 2022, a similar group also affiliated with the PIJ – the Nablus Brigades – was formed.

While its roots go back to February 2022, the Lions’ Den formally emerged in September.

“We are a group and not an organisation. Anyone who wants to resist the occupation is welcome,” one fighter told Al Jazeera in the old city of Nablus, adding that members use rifles they acquired on their own and not in an organised or funded manner.

“It’s about sending a message [to Israel], that we will not sit idly by,” he said. “We know we can’t liberate Palestine now, but we will leave this to the next generation.”


_{Israeli army drones with explosives used in the attack on Wadee al-Hawah’s home}

Since February, a number of Lions’ Den fighters have either been killed or seriously wounded by Israel, or have handed themselves and their weapons over to the PA in exchange for amnesty from Israel, granted they serve time in PA prisons. “They are being fought against by two sides, the PA has told them to hand in their weapons,” the official said.

The PA has been offering deals to fighters from the Lions’ Den, including employment in the security forces, similar to what happened at the end of the second Intifada in the 2000s.

“The PA presented Wadee with temptations,” said Sabreen. “In a meeting with officials two days before he was martyred, they told him we’ll give you a salary of $6,000 if you work with us. You’ll get a house and a car. He was completely against it,” she explained.

In September, clashes broke out between Palestinian fighters and PA security forces in the centre of Nablus, after the latter arrested two fighters, including Musab Shtayyeh, a member of the Lions’ Den and one of the most sought-after ones on Israel’s wanted list.

_{The home of Lions’ Den commander Wadee al-Hawah in the Old City of Nablus following Israel’s attack on October 25}

Future of resistance

On October 23, days before the killing of the five men in Nablus and just a few metres away from Wadee al-Hawah’s home, Palestinians accuse Israel of killing Tamer Kilani, a commander in the Lions’ Den. A bomb planted on a motorcycle detonated as he walked by.

The Israeli army has not commented on Kilani’s death.

The 33-year-old fighter, who was publicly affiliated with the PFLP (The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), had defected from the PA’s presidential guard.

Wearing a thread necklace with a photo of Kilani, rifle in hand, the slain fighter’s father, 56-year-old Sufian, said his son had been wanted by Israel after he left the security services. He was then detained in Israeli prisons for four years in 2014, before being imprisoned by the PA for several months after his release.

“The men of this country face either prison or martyrdom, so I expected this for Tamer at any minute,” continued Sufian.

“Tamer was 13 when he was injured by live ammunition from the [Israeli] occupation forces during confrontations, and 17 when he was first detained,” he said. “I still have a photo of him as a teenager butting heads with an Israeli soldier in [the West Bank town of] Huwwara, carrying the Palestinian flag.”

_{The motorcycle that exploded as Tamer Kilani walked by remains in its place, a few metres away from al-Hawah’s home}

The killing of Wadee al-Hawah, Tamer Kilani and others before them has represented a blow to Lions’ Den, but, despite Israeli and PA pressure, new groups are emerging.

Last week, the Balata Brigades, an armed group that grew out of the refugee camp in Nablus city, announced itself to the public. Armed operations have also spread to the cities of Jerusalem and Hebron.

“The fighters’ confidence is not shaking,” said the Fatah official in Nablus. “The more youth they [Israel] assassinate the more want to join the resistance.”

An Al Jazeera correspondent reports that Israeli raids and artillery shelling have targeted areas west of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Child killed by artillery fire in az-Zawayda

Israeli army: 24 soldiers injured in 24 hours

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri has told Reuters that while the group appreciates “Biden’s ideas”, the current ceasefire proposal does not provide a firm enough commitment that the war will end.

“The Israeli documents speak of open-ended negotiation with no deadline, and it speaks of a stage during which the occupation regains its hostages and resumes the war. We had told the mediators that such a paper wasn’t acceptable to us,” said Abu Zuhri.

“The (US) document … has no mention of ending the aggression or the withdrawal,” he added.

Egypt getting ‘positive signals’ from Hamas on ceasefire deal: Report