30 Palestinians killed in Israeli Air Strike on School-turned-Shelter in Gaza
An attack on a school temporarily being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza by the Israeli air force has left at least 30 people dead, the fourth attack in four days.
The strike hit al-Awdah school in the town of Abbasan, east of Khan Younis, and seriously injured at least 53 people. Local Palestinian medical sources said that the majority of the casualties were women and children.
The source of the information was the Israel Defense Forces, which said the attack was intended to eliminate what it described as a ‘terrorist of the Hamas’s military wing’ close to the school. This admission comes soon after three other similar raids on the Gaza schools that have been used as shelters since Saturday.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said that he saw some of the damage done in one of the schools and added that two-thirds of schools run by UNWRA had been targeted since the start of the conflict. “Schools have gone from safe places of education and hope for children to overcrowded shelters, and often ending up a place of death and misery,” Lazzarini said in the message posted on X – an application formerly known as Twitter.
On the same day, on Saturday, an Israeli air raid targeted al-Jawni school in Nuseirat, central Gaza; at least 16 people died, as reported by the Ministry of Health of Gaza. The school was acting as a shelter for 2000 people at the time. The following day, a strike on the Holy Family school in Gaza City killed 4, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency. The Latin Patriarchate, which owns the school and defends the actions of the striking teachers, said that hundreds of people were inside the premises at the time of the strike.
Similar to other schools backed by UNRWA in Nuseirat, one of the schools on Monday was bombed, causing several injuries that needed the attention of the hospitals.
Lazzarini commented on previous events in which he stated that there is an absolute violation of the principles of international humanitarian law,” and urged not to allow such actions to become a new trend.
Hamas has threatened that the escalated Israeli attacks may endanger the ceasefire talks, with another meeting expected on Wednesday in Qatar.
Unfortunately, the conflict has been catastrophic to Gaza education centers. If one reflects on the original concept of a school, one will picture something that is a beacon of education and, at the same time, hope; today, schools are overpopulated shelters where they often receive a tragic ending. International organizations criticize the situation in Gaza as humane and appeal to all sides to obey international law and avoid affecting non-combatants.
The situation continues to be desperate, pleading for a cease-fire to avoid more casualties and allow assistance for the persecuted people. These strikes have compounded the already dire preconditions, especially in the Gaza Strip, resulting in increased cases of displacement and suffering among the citizens.
The world keeps its eyes on the fight for a relapse in the struggle being faced by different countries in order to find a solution to the attacks taking place in different parts of the world.
