Victims of Gaza City school attack by Israeli military ‘in pieces’

al Jazeera:

 

Israel’s war on Gaza: Victims of Gaza City school attack ‘in pieces’

• More than 100 people have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli attack on a Gaza City school housing displaced Palestinians.
• Local doctors are “struggling to cope” as victims of the attack on al-Tabin School, many “in pieces”, are brought in, reports our correspondent in the besieged and bombarded territory.
• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the Israeli military forced between 60,000 and 70,000 people to evacuate from Khan Younis in southern Gaza towards the already densely crowded al-Mawasi area.
• The US to give Israel $3.5bn to spend on weapons and military equipment as region poised on knife-edge of potential conflict after Israeli assassinations of Hamas leader in Tehran and Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Turkey: Israel committed ‘new crime against humanity’ in school attack

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has released a statement condemning Israel’s dawn attack on a prayer hall at al-Tabin school in Gaza City, which was sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians.

It said that Israel is responsible for “massacring” more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge in the school

“This attack demonstrates once again that the Netanyahu government intends to sabotage the negotiations for a permanent ceasefire,” the statement continues.

“International actors who do not take steps to stop Israel are complicit in Israel’s crimes.”

Biden ‘could have stopped the genocide’: Leader of Balad Party

In a post on X, Sami Abou Shehadeh, leader of the Balad Party in Israel, says that although US President Joe Biden “could have stopped the genocide, he instead just released 3.5 billion for more weapons to kill civilians”.

He also stated that “there’s no opposition among Israeli Zionist parties to the genocide” and that “the latest debate in Israeli Jewish society is about whether they have the right to rape prisoners or not”.

“The Palestinian people remain under attack on all fronts, including Palestinian citizens of Israel,” he said, adding, “Netanyahu, without any opposition, is destabilizing the region, preparing to destroy Lebanon and making sure that Egypt, Jordan (countries that signed bilateral agreements with Tel Aviv) and others are weakened”.

Shehadeh concludes the post by asking, “If the ICC [International Criminal Court] doesn’t take action now, then when?”

In May, the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

EU’s Borrell ‘horrified’ by images from bombed Gaza City school

Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, says he is “horrified” by the images coming out of Gaza City’s al-Tabin school, where over 100 people were killed in an Israeli attack.

Writing on X, Borrell noted the attack is the 10th to hit Gaza’s schools in recent weeks, causing “massacres” for which “there is no justification”.

Borrell also used his post to criticise Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for opposing a ceasefire deal, saying it is the only way to “stop the killing of civilians” and secure the release of Israeli captives.

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Israeli strike on Gaza school kills more than 100 people

Authorities in Gaza said Israeli bombs hit the school-turned-shelter as people were praying and triggered a fire.

People check the damage inside a school used as a temporary shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, following an Israeli attack [Omar al-Qattaa/AFP]

Published On 10 Aug 202410 Aug 2024

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Updated: 

4 minutes ago

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to officials in the enclave.

Three Israeli bombs hit the al-Tabin school, located in Daraj district, Gaza’s civil defence agency said of the attack on Saturday which it described as a “horrific massacre”.

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Women, children and the elderly are reported to be among the dead and the toll was expected to rise. The attack took place while people were performing morning prayers and triggered a fire that ripped through the building.

Reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said it was a “deliberate” attack on civilians but also “a violation of people’s religious rites as they were in a time considered sacred”.

Ismail al-Thawabta, the head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army used three bombs weighing 2,000 pounds (907kg) each in its attack.

He said Israel was aware of the presence of displaced people inside the school.

The Israeli military said its air forces struck a “command and control centre” that “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders”.

Without providing evidence, the Israeli military said in a separate statement that it had intelligence indicating there were 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, including senior commanders, operating from the school.

It also said that the civilian casualty figures given by Palestinian authorities was inaccurate.

Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked schools used as shelters, claiming they are command centres for Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, to hide fighters and manufacture weapons.

Saturday’s attack was the fourth such incident in a week. Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals.

The attack was condemned by Qatar and Egypt – among the key mediators leading negotiations for a ceasefire – among other countries, Palestinian factions, as well as NGOs and the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat reported that rescue teams were unable to help those trapped by the flames as the Israeli military cut water access to the area.

Many of the wounded rushed to the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City were in a critical condition, said Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud, severely bleeding from shrapnel or severely burned from the fire that broke out from the bombardment.

“Many are arriving either soaked in blood or already pronounced dead,” Mahmoud said, adding that the medical facility was on the brink of collapse and unable to provide adequate medical care.

First responders prepare to transport bodies following the Israeli attack [Omar al-Qattaa/AFP]

Some of the bodies were hard to recognise, “so relatives at the hospital searching for their loved ones are struggling to find any way to identify them”, he added.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the civil defence agency, said: “The school area is strewn with dead bodies and body parts. It is very difficult for paramedics to identify a whole dead body. There’s an arm here, a leg there. Bodies are ripped to pieces.”

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said among those killed were survivors of attacks in different evacuation centres over the last 10 days.

“They had lost family members, they were on their own and they were seeking shelter and protection at this particular school-turned-evacuation centre,” he said. “That means entire families are being obliterated and wiped off the Civil Registry across the Gaza Strip.”

The bombing comes as Qatar, Egypt and the United States have called on Israel and Hamas to resume talks on August 15 to reach a ceasefire.

“But every time we get closer to any sort of negotiations for a ceasefire, there is some sort of large-scale Israeli attack that completely derails these discussions,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan.

Hassan Barari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University, said the attack was part of Israel’s strategy to hurt peace efforts.

“They’ve been targeting hospitals and now schools. And this is a reflection of an Israeli mindset that wants to make Gaza really a hard place to live in,” Barari told Al Jazeera, adding this was a pressure tactic to get concessions from Hamas in any future talks.

“We have seen this movie before,” Barari said. “Every time there was talk about peace talks and about truth, the Israelis would do something to undermine the effort. And I think this is clear this time that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is trying to pre-empt the talks on Thursday.”

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that at least 39,790 people have been killed and 92,002 wounded in Israel’s war on the enclave.