Israel Has Bombed Two Schools In Gaza, Including One Run By The UN, Killing And Injuring Hundreds
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees said that up to 7,000 people had been sheltering inside the school at the time.
Hundreds of people have been killed and injured by Israeli airstrikes on two schools in Gaza in less than 24 hours, Palestinian officials said.
Israel bombed the Al Fakhoura school, which is run by the United Nations, in Jabalia refugee camp and another school in Tall-az-Zaatar on Saturday Nov. 18.
The Palestinian ministry of health said hundreds of people had been killed and injured in the two attack, adding that at least 50 people were killed at Al Fakhoura school.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees said that up to 7,000 people had been sheltering inside the school at the time.
“Dead bodies are everywhere and medical teams are trying to evacuate the wounded,” said Tareq Abou Azzoum, an Al Jazeera reporter at the scene at Al Fakhoura school said.
“The scenes were horrifying. Corpses of women and children were on the ground. Others were screaming for help,” a wounded survivor named Ahmed Radwan told AP by phone.
The AP said photos it took at a local hospital showed more than 20 bodies wrapped in bloodstained sheets.
The attack was condemned by the United Nations.
The Israeli military had told people at Jabalia to leave in a post on social media, saying that it was active in the area to “hit terrorists.”
“This is yet another proof that no one, and nowhere is safe in Gaza. Once again, shelters meant to provide safety and protection to civilians have been hit, killing many people, including children. These acts not only blatantly contravene the rules of war, they also show a total disregard for humanity,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said in a statement.
The UNRWA said that it had verified 85 incidents of UNRWA facilities being impacted by Israeli attacks, including 17 times when its facilities was directly hit.
It said that 104 UN workers had been killed since the war began on Oct. 7, which is the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations
The UN said nearly 900,000 displaced people are sheltering in UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, which is six times more than what it planned for under a worst-case scenario.
“This vicious war is reaching a point of no return when all rules are disrespected, in overt disregard for civilian lives,” Lazzarini said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he was “deeply shocked by the attacks.
