Israel's Brutal Attack on Gaza School Flagrantly Violates International Law

The death toll has risen to 22 following an Israeli bombardment of a UN-run school in the Central Gaza Strip sheltering displaced Palestinians. 

The Abu Oreiban School, operated by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) within the Nuseirat refugee camp, saw at least 102 others injured in the attack. This marks the fifth assault on a school-turned-shelter in the past eight days. 

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said the school was housing “thousands of displaced people” and that most of the dead were women and children. 

One of the displaced women told the reporters that she was lighting a fire to cook in a corridor when a nearby room was struck. 

“As soon as the explosion occurred the walls of the room collapsed on us,” she said. “I saw a little boy whose leg was bleeding and a dismembered corpse which people covered with blankets. I also saw a little boy lying in a pool of blood, with his whole face bleeding. I quickly ran out of the school. I found my aunt at the school gate, hugging her burnt young son. When I left the school, I saw many injured people lying on the ground and bodies torn to pieces,” the woman narrated the heart-wrenching scenes she witnessed. 

The Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement, “This massacre comes as a continuation of genocide being perpetrated by the occupation army against our Palestinian people for the tenth month in a row.” 

The bloodshed in Gaza's schools-turned-shelters has been a recurring scene throughout the war, with Israel accusing Hamas of fortifying these locations. 

The assault on the school followed a deadlier strike on tents near the entrance of Khan Younis's al-Awda school on July 9, which killed at least 29 people. Two days earlier, another strike on the church-run Holy Family school in Gaza City killed four people. 

The Israeli army acknowledged the attack on the Abu Oreiban School, asserting that the place was being used as a hideout and operational base for attacks against its forces. 

On the contrary, the displaced residents said, “There are no armed men and no reason to strike schools this way,” he added. “The dead and injured people are mainly women and children staying at this school.” 

Israel has frequently attempted to rationalize attacks on civilian buildings by accusing Palestinian fighters of using them for military purposes, yet it has not substantiated these claims with any evidence. 

Israel blatantly claims that "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence," all the while playing the Hamas card of violating international law to justify its offensive strike. 

Attacking hospitals and humanitarian organizations under the UN Charter is a war crime according to Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Additionally, international law prohibits targeting civilians or failing to differentiate between civilian and military targets. 

UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, reported that Israeli forces have bombed 190 of its facilities, more than half of its total. 

Despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel continues its aggressive military campaign in Gaza, initiated on October 7, drawing international condemnation. 

“Massacres every day everywhere in Gaza,” said Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot after the latest school attack. He added, “This is the result of Israel’s impunity and international inaction.” 

On Monday, Hamas condemned the USA, accusing it of facilitating "genocide" by supplying Israel with "internationally banned" weapons. 

"We condemn in the strongest terms the... American disdain for the blood of the children and women of our Palestinian people... by providing all types of prohibited weapons to the 'Israeli' occupation," a statement from the Hamas government media office said. 

Over the past nine months of relentless bombardment, more than 38,700 people, mostly women and children, have tragically lost their lives. 

The UN estimates that 1.9 million people, or 90% of Gaza’s population, have been forced to flee their homes, with some individuals having been displaced as many as 10 times. Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice preliminarily determined that Israeli attacks in Gaza could potentially constitute genocide. 

In addition to devastating a majority of Gaza's schools, Israeli airstrikes have demolished 60% of homes, 80% of shops, and 60% of roads in the enclave.