Israel strikes five schools in week of ‘massacres’

The latest attack on a UN-run school in Nuseirat camp kills 17, wounds about 80.

Israeli devastating strike on a UN-run school in Gaza's Nuseirat camp
A Palestinian woman reacts after Israel's military bombed the UN-run Abu Oreiban school-turned-shelter, July 14 [Eyad Baba/AFP]

Israeli forces have attacked five separate schools in Gaza in just eight days, killing dozens of people sheltering in them, according to Palestinian officials, medics and rescuers.

The latest attack on Sunday struck the United Nations-run Abu Oreiban school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 80. Most of the victims were women and children, said Palestinian Civil Defence.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where some of those injured were brought, said he encountered severely burned women and children “crying out in pain and agony” on the floor.

“This is the result of incinerating bombs,” he said.

The assault came after a deadlier strike hit tents near the entrance to Khan Younis’s al-Awda school on July 9, killing at least 29 people.

Two days before that, another strike on the church-run Holy Family school in Gaza City killed four people.

The bloodshed in Gaza’s schools-turned-shelters, which Israel accuses Hamas of fortifying, has been a recurring scene throughout the war.

Israel has repeatedly attacked civilian buildings after accusing Palestinian fighters of using them for military purposes but it has provided no proof for its claims. Campaigners have accused Israel of disproportionate use of force against civilians in Gaza. More than 38,600 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in nine months of relentless bombardment.

On Saturday, Israel struck al-Mawasi area, designated as a safe zone, killing at least 90 people and injuring 300 others.

“Massacres every day everywhere in Gaza,” said Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot after the latest school attack. “This is the result of Israel’s impunity and international inaction.”

Since launching the war on October 7, Israel has hammered more than 400 schools in Gaza, which are among the few places displaced Palestinians can turn to for shelter, destroying 88 percent of all educational facilities.

With the enclave’s education system decimated, there is little hope of enrollment for some 620,000 school-age Palestinians who are out of school.

epa11478359 An injured Palestinian girl (L) stands among debris in a damaged UNRWA school following an Israeli air strike in Al Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 14 July 2024. At least 12 people were killed following an Israeli air strike in the camp, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The Israeli military stated on 14 July, that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck the area of UNRWA's Abu Oraiban School School building in Nuseirat, claiming that the location served as a 'hideout and operational infrastructure' to direct and carry attacks against Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip. More than 38,000 Palestinians and over 1,400 Israelis have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), since Hamas militants launched an attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on 07 October 2023, and the Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank which followed it. EPA-EFE/MOHAMMED SABER
An injured Palestinian girl stands among debris in a damaged UN school following an Israeli air attack in the Nuseirat refugee camp, July 14 [Mohammed Saber/EPA]

A June report by the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR) found that Israel’s repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools, appear to be violations of international law.

“Civilian lives and infrastructure are protected under international humanitarian law,” said OCHCR chief Volker Turk. “This law lays out the very clear obligations of parties to armed conflicts that make protection of civilians a priority.”

“Israel’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities in Gaza since October 7, including through the extensive use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas, have failed to ensure that they effectively distinguish between civilians and fighters.”

In January, the International Court of Justice said Israeli attacks in Gaza plausibly amounted to genocide.

On top of wrecking most of Gaza’s schools, Israeli attacks have destroyed 60 percent of the enclave’s homes, 80 percent of its commercial shops and 60 percent of its roads.

INTERACTIVE_consolidated_infrastructure_JULY14_2024

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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