LAST UPDATE | 11 Aug
AN ISRAELI ROCKET attack on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza has been widely condemned as ‘barbaric’ and a ‘crime against humanity’ by Middle Eastern states while allies like the United States and the UK have expressed “concern” and once again urged Israel to adhere to international law.
Meanwhile, this afternoon people fled the Gazan city of Khan Younis after Israel issued yet another mass evacuation order for a designate so-called “safe zone”, further displacing those affected by the ongoing conflict.
The Israeli rockets hit the Al-Tabieen religious school and mosque in northern Gaza as people gathered together for dawn prayers yesterday. The Gaza civil defence agency reported that at least 93 people were killed.
Rescuers and journalists in Gaza have posted photos and videos showing the collection of body parts in plastic bags as distraught family members searched for remnants of their loved ones.
According to tally by the AFP news agency, at least 14 schools sheltering Gaza’s displaced have been hit since 6 July, killing more than 280 people.
“Peaceful people – women, children, and youths – were performing the Fajr prayer as usual when suddenly a missile hit them,” said Abu Wassim, who lives nearby and came to survey the scene.
“They were reduced to remains. Children were torn apart, and women were burned. What can we say or do? What is in our power?”
On these days, I was supposed to be walking the stage, graduating from college. Instead, I'm picking up bags of charred, dismembered bodies of women and children who were killed by Israeli occupation forces. pic.twitter.com/aqXHU9AP4T
— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) August 10, 2024
The Israeli military (IDF) said it had “precisely” targeted Hamas fighters in the strikes, claiming to have killed 19 militants.
Hamas denounced the attack as a “horrific crime” and a “dangerous escalation” yesterday.
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Hamas has been operating out of schools, “but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimise civilian harm”.
A White House statement said yesterday that it was “deeply concerned about reports of civilian casualties” following the strike and was seeking more information.
The strike “underscores the urgency of a ceasefire and hostage deal, which we continue to work tirelessly to achieve”, the statement added.
On Friday, the US State department said it had approved an additional $3.5bn to Israel to spend on US-made weapons and military equipment.
Taoiseach Simon Harris has called on countries to make a more concerted effort in pushing for a ceasefire deal and repeated his call for an “urgent review” of the EU’s trade deal with Israel.
“Some 490 of Gaza’s schools have been bombed or damaged since the start of the war, and this weekend’s images from inside al-Taba’een school are gut-wrenching. Ireland condemns outright such awful and wholesale loss of civilian life,” Harris said.
States across the Middle East have condemned the latest Israeli attack on a school sheltering those displaced by its 10-month-long war on the Gaza Strip, with a number of foreign ministries declaring it shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unwillingness to reach a ceasefire agreement.
Netanyahu himself has said he does not want a ceasefire until Hamas is completely destroyed, something his own military’s lead spokesperson has said is impossible.
The Turkish foreign ministry statement decried a “new crime against humanity” and said the attack shows “once again” that Netanyahu “wants to sabotage permanent ceasefire negotiations”.
“The international actors who do not take measures to stop Israel are making themselves complicit in these crimes,” it added.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the strike “showed once again that Israel does not respect any of the rules and regulations of international law and moral and human principles.”
Kanani called for “firm action by Muslim and freedom-loving countries around the world to support the Palestinian nation and its legitimate struggles and resistance against the occupation”.
Those comments came in light of the recent Israeli assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which has increased fears of a wider regional war.
Qatar, a mediator in the ongoing conflict, demanded an urgent investigation to ascertain the “facts regarding the Israeli occupation forces’ continued targeting of schools and shelters for displaced persons”.
Egypt, which has diplomatic ties with Israel and is also involved in negotiations between the two sides, said the attack was carried out “in disdain of international and humanitarian law” and showed a “lack of willingness on the Israeli side to put an end to this ferocious war.”
Jordan’s foreign ministry said the timing was an indication of Israel’s efforts to “obstruct and thwart” the latest efforts made towards a ceasefire agreement.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group described the attack as a “horrific massacre” and called for worldwide outrage in solidarity with Palestinians.
Yemen’s Houthis said it was “a brutal massacre committed by the criminal Israeli entity with full American support”.
The Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council said the “direct targeting of shelters and camps of the displaced, are considered war crimes”.
Kuwait’s foreign ministry called on “the international community and the Security Council to intervene to stop these heinous crimes against a defenceless people, and to exert more efforts to stop the bloodshed”.
Bahrain “strongly” condemned the bombing of the school. In a statement, the foreign ministry called on the international community “to assume its responsibilities to provide the necessary protection for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip from the ongoing Israeli attacks”.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the attack left him “horrified”.
“At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres,” Borrell wrote on X.
France said “Israel must respect international humanitarian law”.
“For several weeks, school buildings have been repeatedly targeted, with an intolerable number of civilian victims,” the French foreign ministry said.
“Moscow is deeply shocked by what has happened,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
“We reaffirm our principled and consistent position on the need for strict compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law. We call on the Israeli side to refrain from attacking civilian objects.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas will visit Moscow next week to discuss the Gaza war with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Palestinian envoy said.
Appalled by the Israeli Military strike on al-Tabeen school and the tragic loss of life.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) August 10, 2024
Hamas must stop endangering civilians. Israel must comply with International Humanitarian Law.
We need an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians, free all hostages, and end restrictions…
UK Home Secretary David Lammy said he was “appalled” by the attack and lamented “the tragic loss of life”.
But he also said “Hamas must stop endangering civilians” and added that Israel “must comply with International humanitarian law”.
“We need an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians, free all hostages, and end restrictions on aid,” he said in a social media post.
The Swiss foreign affairs ministry said in a post on X that it was “alarmed by the high death toll reported after an Israeli strike on a school used as a shelter. International humanitarian law protects civilians and civilian infrastructure in conflict zones.”
“Once again we demand the total respect for the provisional measures demanded by the International Court of Justice for the protection of civilian populations,” said the Spanish government.
Palestinians fled southern Gaza’s main city today as the IDF announced a new military operation.
AFP journalists said hundreds of Palestinians fled northern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis, which has been ravaged by months of bombardment and battles, after Israel issued fresh evacuation orders in the early morning.
The IDF dropped leaflets and sent mobile phone messages warning of “dangerous combat” in Al-Jalaa district and telling Palestinian residents to leave the area, which until today was designated a humanitarian “safe zone”.
Similar evacuation orders have preceded major military incursions and deadly bombardments, often forcing Palestinians displaced numerous times by the war to pack up and leave for safety.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that “just in the past few days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in southwest Gaza.” The entire territory has a population of about 2.4 million people.
The IDF said in a statement its forces were “about to operate against the terrorist organisations in the area”, calling on “the remaining population left in the Al-Jalaa neighbourhood to temporarily evacuate”.
Families gathered their meagre belongings as crowds of people left Al-Jalaa, some loading mattresses, clothing and cooking utensils into pick-up trucks. Others took to the road on foot.
Umm Sami Shahada, a 55-year-old displaced Palestinian, said she had “fled Gaza City at the start of the war for Khan Yunis”, hoping to find shelter.
“My daughter was killed in bombardment, so we went to Rafah, then we came back here, and now with this new evacuation order we don’t know where to go”, she said.
With reporting from AFP
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