Washington: US State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said that the United States is concerned about the Israeli attack on a United Nations training center housing displaced persons in Khan Yunis in Gaza on Wednesday.
“We regret today's attack on the UN training center in Khan Yunis,” Patel said in a press conference, describing it as “incredibly disturbing.”
Palestinians try to extinguish a fire in the building of the UNRWA Vocational Training Center, which is used by displaced people as a shelter, after it was targeted by an Israeli tank shell in Khan Yunis.credit: AP
Patel reiterated Washington's calls to protect civilians, humanitarian workers and relief facilities.
The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees in Gaza said that nine Palestinians were killed and 75 others were injured when two tank shells hit the building that was housing about 800 people in the southern Gaza Strip.
“Civilians must be protected, the protected nature of UN facilities must be respected, and humanitarian workers must be protected so they can continue to provide civilians with the life-saving humanitarian assistance they need,” Patel said.
Palestinians carry the body of a person killed in the Israeli bombing of the UNRWA vocational training center building used by displaced people as a shelter in Khan Yunis.credit: AP
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi accused Israel of obstructing the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip as a pressure tactic, in the latest sign of friction between the two countries that continue the siege of the Strip.
“This is a form of pressure on the Gaza Strip and its people regarding the conflict and the release of the hostages. Al-Sisi said in statements on the occasion of National Police Day in Egypt: “They are using this as a tool of pressure on the people of the Gaza Strip.”
Israel, which denies stopping aid, launched an air and ground war on Gaza after Hamas gunmen invaded its border on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages, of whom about 130 are still in captivity.
