16 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attack on UN School Shelter in Gaza
At least 16 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. This incident is part of the ongoing conflict as Israel continues to bombard the besieged coastal territory.
The Government Media Office said on Saturday that more than 75 individuals were also wounded in the attack on the al-Jaouni school situated in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. In another statement, the said office condemned the Israeli occupation for these continuing accountabilities and massacres against civilians, children, and women.
This facility of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is the newest school to be struck by the Israeli military since the Gaza conflict started in the first week of October. Up to the data available, a total of 38,098 Palestinians have been reported to have been killed by the Israelis in Gaza. This trapped region is critically in desperate need of food, water, medicine, and all humanitarian aid supplies.
Only on Saturday, tens of Palestinians, five of them being journalists, lost their lives because the Israeli military continued its heavy shelling. Such angles of the attack on the UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat are therefore evidenced by videos and photos displaying twisted metal and the collapsed dugout. With the boy as the main focus, there is a sequence where he walks around scooping something red and sticky pouring from the large vessels of the people on the ground.
According to the Sanad agency of Al Jazeera, services were obtained from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah, and children and young people were brought from ambulances. There was a girl with a bandaged arm, a girl with a bloodied face, and a boy with a bandage across his head. Two bodies were carried fast into the medical complex, and those attending to the emergency attempted to cover them. Live Palestinian news broadcast said that 50 injured Palestinians were admitted to hospital.
On Saturday night, posting a statement on social media, the Israeli army accused its air force of attacking ‘several terrorists’ in the locality of al-Jaouni school. Corresponding from Deir el-Balah, Hind Khoudary of Aljazeera said while hundreds of Palestinians were taking refuge in the Deir el-Balah preparatory school, several families had vacated this place for Israeli attacks in other areas of Gaza.
“The families chose the middle area [of the Gaza Strip] because Israeli forces said the middle area is a safe zone,” Khoudary explained. “Everyone in the Gaza Strip believes that they are not safe wherever they go.”
In another incident last month, at least 40 people were killed and scores others injured when Israel launched a strike on a UN-affiliated school in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Musab, a 17-year-old student of the UNRWA Nuseirat Boys’ Preparatory School, which was bombed in early June, disclosed that his father was killed, saying, “missiles rained down. ” Musab, in his statement in a video shared by UNRWA, said:
“The concrete slabs fell on us, and within a blink of an eye, I was surrounded by the dead and the injured. All of my family members were either injured or killed. ”
The accused stated, ‘It was nighttime, and we were asleep. At two o’clock, missiles descended on us. They dragged us out from the wreckage, and all that we saw were shrapnel, wreckage, and dust. I am in shock. I still cannot believe my father is dead. How do you live?’
The escalation of the conflict from both sides shows no sign of stopping, and the situation in Gaza is worsening by the day, with a humanitarian crisis escalating within the strip.
