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Israel ‘intentionally’ destroyed Gaza schools, health centers: Rights group

Friday, 17 May 2024 9:22 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 17 May 2024 9:22 AM ]

Palestinian children walk past debris at an UNRWA school destroyed by Israel at the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on May 7, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

A Geneva-based rights group says Israel “intentionally” demolished schools and medical facilities, including those run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), during its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) said that Ain Jalut, Atta al-Shawa, and Hassan al-Nakhalah schools, as well as the Zeitoun Medical Clinic were all destroyed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City’s southern Zeitoun neighborhood.

Heavy Israeli aerial and ground assaults turned the district into “a pile of rubble” and forced hundreds of families to evacuate, it added.

Euro-Med also referred to deadly Israeli strikes on the al-Sabra Clinic, in Gaza City’s western al-Sabra neighborhood, where displaced people were sheltering.

It further touched on recent Israeli raids on six UNRWA schools in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.

The Israeli military, the rights group said, has “worked methodically to militarize” civilian buildings like hospitals, schools, and other educational institutions and turn them into military bases and detention facilities in clear violation of international law and conventions on war.

“It is crucial to shield schools in the Gaza Strip from Israel’s military assaults. The international community must put pressure on Israel to cease” its attacks on schools, it emphasized.

Meanwhile, Euro-Med said the Israeli military converts educational centers into military bases as part of its “colonial legacy of dominance” meant to destroy Palestine’s cultural and educational heritage.

More than 390 educational institutes destroyed in Gaza since Oct. 7

Hamas announced more than 390 schools, universities in Gaza destroyed in 100 days

Israel unleashed the Gaza onslaught on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 35,303 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 79,261 others, according to the Gaza-based health ministry update on Friday.

Euro-Med estimated that until mid-April, the Israeli offensive killed over 6,500 students and 756 teachers in Gaza, and deprived over 625,000 students from their right to education.

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