GENEVA, (PIC)
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Wednesday condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli escalation targeting UN schools sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip.
The human rights organization documented air strikes and artillery shelling that took place in the past 24 hours, targeting five UN schools, killing and wounding hundreds in gross violation of lawful immunity enjoyed by UN facilities.
On Tuesday and Wednesday morning Israeli warplanes targeted Palestine and Salah al-Din schools in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Al-Falah school in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood south of Gaza City, Ma’an school in Khan Younis, and another school in Bani Suhaila town in the southern Gaza Strip.
Dozens of displaced people were killed or injured on Tuesday, in Israeli airstrikes on Ma’an School in Khan Younis which also witnessed collateral damage of another school as a result of Israeli artillery shelling, claiming the lives of at least four displaced people and injuring 20 others.
Euro-Med Monitor pointed out that preliminary statistics demonstrate that approximately 1.9 out of 2.3 million people in Gaza have become internally displaced, with approximately 1.2 million reside in 156 UNRWA facilities throughout the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA has documented more than 120 attacks on its facilities since the beginning of Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7, including direct strikes on more than 30 UNRWA facilities.
Some of the schools that shelter the displaced and are affiliated with the United Nations were subjected to repetitive Israeli attacks, such as Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
The school was subjected to an Israeli attack on November 19, leaving hundreds of martyrs and wounded, while some of them were sleeping. Earlier, on the fourth of the same month, the same school was subjected to intense artillery shelling, causing dozens of casualties.
Meanwhile, Tal al-Zaatar school in the northern Gaza Strip was attacked several times, the most severe of which was carried out on November 18, killing more than 50 people and injuring dozens of others.
UNRWA facilities, like all United Nations organizations, raise the United Nations flag on their rooftops. Coordinates of all schools and centers that have been turned into emergency shelters for civilians are periodically shared with relevant Israeli authorities.
Euro-Med Monitor stressed that Israel must fulfil all of its obligations in accordance with international humanitarian law, including halting its targeting of civilians and United Nations facilities.
