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UNRWA chief: Israel hit Gaza school 'without warning'

Iran Press TV

Thursday, 06 June 2024 2:54 PM

The UN Palestinian refugee agency's chief has said that Israel bombed one of its schools in Gaza "without prior warning" to thousands of displaced sheltering there.

"Another UNRWA school turned shelter attacked," said Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

"Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law," he wrote on social media platform X on Thursday.

The Israeli military on Thursday killed at least 40 Palestinians, including children in a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli strike targeted the UN-run school sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the besieged Palestinian territory.

Lazzarini stated that UNRWA "shares the coordinates of all its facilities (including this school) with the Israeli army and other parties in the conflict."

"Targeting @UN premises or using them for military purposes cannot become the new norm," said Lazzarini, who added that the school was sheltering 6,000 displaced people when it was hit.

A rights group B'Tselem called the strike a "suspected war crime."

"If, as Israel claims, Hamas used the school to plan military operations, this action is illegal, but it cannot justify the massive harm to civilians who sought shelter in the school from the horror of prolonged fighting," the group said in a statement.

"As demonstrated throughout the war, the killing of civilians is an unavoidable result of the character of Israel's military activity in the Gaza Strip," it said, calling on the international community to help stop the war.

In a statement following the school carnage, the Israeli military confirmed that its warplanes had hit a UNRWA school in the area, claiming that the compound was a safe haven for fighters of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

However, Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the government media office in Gaza, strongly rejected the allegation.

"The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people," he said.

UNRWA is the primary source of humanitarian aid not only to Gaza but also to Palestinian refugees throughout the region.

Hours before the deadly strike, Israel also attacked the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing and wounding scores of Palestinians.

Israel's bloody war machine has killed over 36,654 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The vast majority of the fatalities are women and children.

Israel has additionally enforced a comprehensive blockade on the coastal sliver, severing the supply of fuel, electricity, sustenance and water to the population of over two million Palestinians residing there.