At dawn on 10 August, the Israeli occupation fighters, using highly advanced American munition, attacked a three-story mosque located in Al-Tabi’in School in Gaza City, killing more than 115 displaced people and wounding more than 150 others, including women and children.
Over the last two weeks, Israeli occupation forces have hit at least 14 schools that are being used as refugee shelters, killing and wounding hundreds of displaced people, but the attack on Al-Tab’een School was the worst. In fact, it was one of the worst massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces since the ongoing Gaza genocide began in October.
The massacre led to a regional and international outcry, but, as always, it was nothing but mere words. Israel, meanwhile, justified the strike and celebrated it as a military achievement and a victory. How? Very simply by telling lies and the world, as always, has to accept the Israeli lies without question.
In a recorded video posted on X, a spokesman for the Israeli occupation army claimed responsibility for the attack on the school’s mosque, saying a “Hamas command and control center” had been targeted as it was located in the school. He stated that “the strike was carried out using three precise munitions” that did not cause much damage.
He claimed that “the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza” had reported an exaggerated damage to the school. He also said that “prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of a small warhead, aerial surveillance and intelligence information.”
But what happened proved that the Israeli occupation army intended to cause civilian casualties. Though the spokesperson stressed that the army used aerial surveillance and intelligence information, it still struck the area at a time known for congregational prayer, to ensure maximum casualties.
Did the occupation army’s aerial surveillance and intelligence information not show that it was the time of the fajr – dawn – prayer? Or that more than 300 people had congregated in the mosque? No doubt it did and that is exactly why that time and place were chosen, to increase the number of casualties.
The Israeli army spokesman then claimed that 19 people among those murdered were Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives. Is striking a group of 300 civilians justified in order to kill 19 “wanted” individuals? EuroMed Human Rights Monitor has refuted this Israeli claim and proved it to be a dirty lie.
According to the EuroMed Monitor, the school was providing shelter to over 2,500 displaced people in Gaza City, adding that “three of the 19 names listed by the Israeli army as “terrorists who were eliminated” in the Tab’een School massacre had already been killed in earlier Israeli bombing attacks.”
Additionally, “three elderly civilians who had no connection to the military action were also among the victims, including a school principal … an Arabic language teacher, … and six civilians, some of whom were even Hamas opponents.”
Ihab Al-Jabari, one of the 19 people the Israeli occupation claimed was a “terrorist” it had targeted in the air strike on the school, EuroMed Monitor said, had been killed by the Israeli occupation forces on 5 December 2023 while fleeing his house along with his family.
This is not the first time that an Israeli official tells lies. Reserve Major General Yitzhak Brick has presented evidence that Israeli occupation forces have been in a crisis in the Gaza Strip, while all the remarks and messages delivered by all Israeli officials about achievements and victories are false.
Following the last Israeli ground incursion into Gaza City’s Jabalia neighborhood, the Israeli military claimed that 300 Palestinian fighters were killed. In an article published by the Hebrew media, Brick quoted an Israeli soldier who was in the battle field, who asked how that number was logical as the occupation forces had not seen any Palestinian fighters on the ground, stressing that the army was lying.
Brick also wondered about the credibility of the chief of staff of the Israeli army’s claims about the killing of 900 Palestinian fighters in Rafah. He reiterated that “all” remarks and claims delivered by the Israeli army and Israeli officials are lies.
“An army which lives on lies does not achieve victory,” Brick stressed, accusing correspondents of turning “massive failures to illusional successes.” They are fed lies by the army spokespersons and report only lies.
On Saturday, Israel’s Channel 14 reported: “The situation in Gaza is far from victory. We are surprised by the repeated remarks made by the senior military officers who speak about the close victory.”
It is not only the political and military officials who are liars in Israel. Lawmakers are also liars and the Israeli parliament is a place for legalizing lies.
On Sunday, Itay Epshtain, a senior Israeli human rights and policy consultant, posted on on X: “Appearing before the Israeli Parliament Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this morning, the Military Advocate General reportedly referred to the investigation of torture of Palestinian detainees as an ‘effort to shield them and the armed forces from international tribunals’.”
The Israeli lies date back since the occupation state’s inception with claims Palestine was a “land without a people”.
The occupation state of Israel was built on lies, has been telling lies and will continue telling lies because telling the truth damages its false legitimacy.
-Motasem A Dalloul is MEMO’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip.
