A REPORT by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says that at least eight UN-run schools that have been providing shelter to displaced Palestinians have been attacked by Israeli forces in the past 10 days or so.

The report by the UN body comes as Hamas was forced to deny accusations by a rights group that it committed war crimes during its surprise attack on October 7 that prompted Israel’s full-scale invasion of Gaza, which it had previously held under an illegal siege for 17 years.

UNRWA says that 70 per cent of the agency’s schools in Gaza have been bombed, killing at least 539 Palestinians who had been seeking shelter.

The Israelis today killed 23 people in a single attack on a UN-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which also left more than 70 critically injured.

UNRWA says that 189 of its installations have been attacked and damaged by Israeli fire and as of July 14 some 197 of its staff have been killed.

The UN body says that only 10 of its 26 health centres in the Gaza Strip are currently operational.

UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini today called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israeli attacks on schools have become “an almost daily occurrence.”

He wrote on the X social media site that: “Schools must never be used for fighting or military purposes by any party to the conflict. Schools are not a target.”

Meanwhile Hamas has rejected claims by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that they and four other groups that staged the attack on October 7 “committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians.” 

In its 230-page report, HRW accused the Palestinian groups of committing dozens of serious human rights violations including “murder, hostage-taking, and other grave offences.”

Belkis Wille, an associate director at HRW, said: “The killing of civilians and taking of hostages were all central aims of the planned attack, and not actions that occurred as an afterthought or as a plan gone awry, or as isolated acts.”

Hamas slammed the accusations as “lies and blatant bias” in favour of Israel and demanded an apology from HRW and a withdrawal of the report.

In a statement Hamas said: “The HRW report adopted the entire Israeli narrative.”

In April, an HRW investigation found that an Israeli strike in October in central Gaza that killed 106 Palestinians constituted a war crime because there was no apparent military target.