Footage circulating in the aftermath of the attack showed a newborn who was decapitated by the bombing.
Israeli forces bombed a UN clinic in Gaza serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people just days after officials discovered 15 first responders who had been executed by Israeli soldiers and buried in a mass grave in Gaza.
The military bombed a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) clinic in Jabalia refugee camp, resulting in a horrific scene, witnesses said and videos of the attack showed. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, the strike killed at least nine children — including a 1-week-old baby.
Footage of the massacre shows a man holding the body of a baby who was decapitated in the attack, reportedly born just weeks ago. The strike ignited a massive fire.
“I was sitting with my family and suddenly a missile targeted us. The dust was all over the place. The martyrs were burned. We found human flesh. We found human bones,” one witness told Al Jazeera. “Innocent women and children were killed. Separated heads and different body parts were everywhere. It is something beyond logic and beyond imagination.”
Other video footage posted by Palestinians online shows a young girl distraught and mourning her father, who had been killed in the attack.
“Targeting a medical clinic affiliated with a UN organization constitutes a full-fledged war crime that requires urgent international accountability,” the Gaza Government Media Office said.
As videos of the aftermath of the massacre circulated on social media, the Israeli military claimed that they were targeting Hamas and that the facility acted as a “terrorist command and control center.” Advocates for Palestinian rights said that this is an outright lie, and that the attack deliberately targeted civilians.
“I challenge the army to name the alleged target. In a few hours, they’ll dig up the name of a young man and falsely label him as Hamas,” said Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor Chairman Ramy Abdu. “Wake up, world — Israel is committing a full-scale genocide.”
The Government Media Office noted that Israeli forces have systematically targeted displaced Palestinians, striking at least 228 shelters for civilians amid the genocide. Israeli forces have also repeatedly targeted UNRWA facilities and staff, killing at least 284 UNRWA workers and damaging or destroying UNRWA buildings at least 650 times since October 7, 2023.
The attack comes just two days after the UN reported the discovery of a mass grave holding 15 paramedics in Gaza.
The group was made up of workers for Gaza’s civil defense agency, UNRWA and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). The workers were thought to be missing for days until the grave was found — nearby ambulances and a fire truck that had been destroyed and partially buried by Israeli forces. One PRCS medic is still missing, the group said.
Bashar Murad, PRCS’s health program director, told The Guardian that the bodies were buried in a way that showed that Israeli soldiers executed them with their hands tied.
“What is certain and very clear is that they were shot in the upper parts of their bodies, then gathered in a hole one on top of another, with sand thrown over them and buried,” Murad said.
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