Official: Most UNRWA schools in Gaza Strip hit during war

Two thirds of schools run by the Palestinian relief organization UNRWA in the Gaza Strip have suffered damage since the start of the war nine months ago, the agency said on Wednesday.

Some schools were bombed out, many were severely damaged, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, posted on X.

"Schools have gone from safe places of education and hope for children to overcrowded shelters and often ending up a place of death and misery," Lazzarini wrote.

Four schools have been hit in the past four days alone, the UNRWA chief added, without specifying which warring party was behind the attacks.

According to the agency, it ran 284 schools in the sealed-off coastal strip before the Gaza war began on October 7.

"Nine months in, under our watch, the relentless, endless killings, destruction and despair continue. Gaza is no place for children," Lazzarini said, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The "blatant disregard of international humanitarian law" cannot become the new normal, he stressed.

In Berlin, the German Foreign Office wrote on X that it was unacceptable that civilians seeking protection in schools were being killed.

The repeated attacks on schools by the Israeli army must stop and be investigated "quickly," the office demanded.