October 2024 Abu Hussein school attack

October 2024 Abu Hussein school attack
Part of the second battle of Jabalia and attacks on schools during the Israel–Hamas war
Abu Hussein school
Location	Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza Strip
Date	17 October 2024
Target	UNRWA-run Abu Hussein school
Attack type	Airstrike, massacre, war crime
Deaths	28+ Palestinians
Injured	160+ Palestinians
Perpetrator	Israel Defense Forces

On 17 October 2024, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed the UNRWA-run Abu Hussein primary school, which had been turned into a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. The airstrike killed at least 28 Palestinians and wounded 160 others.

Background

On 5 October 2024, the IDF launched a new ground offensive in Jabalia, aiming to eliminate what it said were Hamas militants regrouping there. Israel imposed a siege over the area and obstructed the entry of aid to Jabalia, which the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations described as "a genocide within genocide".

Airstrike

Israel struck the primary school on 17 October 2024, killing at least 28 and wounding more than 160, claiming that the strike targeted an "operational meeting point" for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants, without providing substantial evidence. Israel named 12 men who it accused of conducting rocket attacks and attacking IDF soldiers. Hamas strongly denied the claim that it had used the UNRWA school for fighting purposes, and called it "nothing but lies" and a "systematic policy of the enemy to justify its crime." The director of Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia reported that the hospital was small and could not receive all of the Palestinians injured by the strike, adding that most of those presented were women and children. He also stated that there was no water to distinguish the fire, and that the attack constitutes a massacre. Several tents caught fire, causing smoke to rise. At least 5 children were killed in the strike.