At least 9 killed in attack on UN training center in Gaza: official

GAZA -- A UN training center in Gaza's major southern city of Khan Younis was attacked and set on fire on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, a UN official said.

Two tank rounds hit the building that shelters 800 people, killing at least nine people and wounding 75 others, Thomas White, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza, wrote in a post on social media platform X.

He added that rescue teams from the UNRWA and the World Health Organization are trying to reach the center.

Eyewitnesses told Xinhua that the Israeli bombing of the western areas of Khan Younis sparked a large fire at the training center.

They said citizens moved many of the dead and wounded from inside the center to outside as the fire engulfed large parts of the building.

Witnesses said ambulances and medical teams could not reach the burning center because of the siege imposed by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the shelling of the center and slammed the attack as part of Israel's systematic targeting of the UNRWA's institutions, facilities, staff, schools, shelters, and equipment.

In the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 210 Palestinians and wounded 386 others in 24 attacks, bringing the total number of Palestinian deaths and injuries to 25,700 and 63,740, respectively, since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry on Wednesday.