Gaza: 14 dead in two new Israeli attacks

(Keystone-ATS) Engaged against the Palestinian movement Hamas, as well as against the Lebanese movement Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli army announced that over the last 24 hours it had attacked “more than 50 terrorist targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Fourteen Palestinians were killed overnight and Saturday morning “during two raids targeting a school in Gaza City”, in the north, and a “tent camp for displaced people in Khan Younes”, in the south of the Gaza Strip, said Mahmoud Bassal, Civil Defense spokesperson for this small Palestinian coastal territory devastated by more than a year of war.

Children among the dead

A missile attack on the Fahad al-Sabah school, an establishment in the Al-Touffah neighborhood of Gaza City transformed into an emergency accommodation center like almost all schools in the Gaza Strip, left “five dead , including children, and 22 injured,” Mr. Bassal said in a press release.

The other Israeli attack “on tents of displaced people in Khan Younes left “9 dead and 11 injured,” he added.

The latest episode of the very long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war was triggered by the attack on October 7, 2023 launched in Israel by Hamas. More than 43,550 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli military campaign of reprisals on the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.

Two attacks on schools every day

In October, “at least 64 attacks on schools – almost two per day – were recorded in the Gaza Strip,” UNICEF said on Friday.

Schools in Gaza “essentially serve as shelters for displaced children and families,” notes UNICEF, recalling that “under international humanitarian law, schools are protected spaces.”

More than 95% of schools destroyed

Since the start of the war, however, deplores the UN agency, “more than 95% of schools have been destroyed in part or in full”.

The Israeli army regularly accuses fighters of Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups of “systematically violating international law (by) using residents as human shields”. It ensures that it strives to “minimize damage to non-combatants before attacks”.

International humanitarian law not respected

On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, estimated that “the unprecedented level of civilian deaths and injuries” observed in Gaza was “a direct consequence of the failure to respect the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

Even if Palestinian armed groups use civilians as human shields, this does not exempt the Israeli army from respecting the foundations of international humanitarian law, which are “the principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution,” noted in July the UN Human Rights Office after a series of Israeli strikes on schools in Gaza leaving dozens dead.