UNITED NATIONS: The UN Human Rights Office, OCHRC has condemned the increasing frequency of Israeli military bombardments on schools, where hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with the latest attacks killing dozens at a Gaza City school.
At around 4:30 am during fajr prayer on Saturday, a mosque inside Al Tabaeen School was struck by the IDF “at least three times”, the OHCHR in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the attacks were “conducted with apparent disregard for the high rate of civilian fatalities”.
An initial report showed the strikes killed at least 93 Palestinians, including 11 children and six women, but workers are still digging up bodies.
Between 7 October and 8 August, at least 39,699 Palestinians were killed and 91,722 were injured in the ongoing war, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
More than 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced, many multiple times, since 7 October.
Schools, UN facilities and civilian infrastructure should not be targets, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, reiterated in a social media post on Saturday.
“Another day of horror in Gaza, another school hit with reports of dozens of Palestinian killed among them women, children and older people,” he said, adding that parties to the conflict must not use schools and other civilian facilities for military or fighting purposes and must, at all times, protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.
“It’s time for these horrors unfolding under our watch to end,” he said. “We cannot let the unbearable become a new norm. The more recurrent, the more we lose our collective humanity.”
The majority of fatalities resulting from the Saturday IDF strikes appear to have been inside the mosque performing their prayers, OHCHR reported. Dozens of others were reportedly seriously injured, mostly children, women and older people.
This is at least the 21st strike on a school, each serving as a shelter, that the UN Human Rights Office has recorded since 4 July. These strikes have resulted in at least 274 fatalities, including women and children.
“Despite IDF statements that all measures are taken to avoid civilian harm, the repeated strikes on shelters [for displaced people] in areas to which the populations have been forced to move and the consistent and predictable impact on civilians suggest a failure to strictly comply with obligations required by international humanitarian law,” OHCHR stated.
The agency said these systematic attacks on schools came in the context where most of Gaza’s population has been displaced while the Israeli military continues detonating residential buildings and restricting the entry and distribution of humanitarian assistance.
Internally displaced Gazans face “indescribable horror” after 10 months of hostilities, including multiple forced displacements, the rapid spread of diseases and ongoing denial of access to the basic necessities of life, OHCHR said.
“For many, schools are the last resort to find some shelter and possible access to food and water,” according to the UN agency.
“While the co-location by armed groups of military objectives with civilians or the use of the presence of civilians with the objective of shielding a military objective from attack constitute violations of international humanitarian law, it does not negate Israel’s obligation to comply strictly,” OHCHR said.
That includes the principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution when carrying out military operations.
“Israel, as the occupying power, is obliged to provide the population it has forcibly displaced with basic humanitarian needs, including safe shelter,” the UN rights office said.
