Israel-Hamas war: UN says Gaza hospital has become ‘death zone’
A U.N. official said Saturday that two schools run by his organization in northern Gaza had been bombed in less than 24 hours, and video from one of the scenes verified by The New York Times showed many bloodied and motionless bodies at once.
Palestinian officials said on Saturday that many people were killed and injured in an Israeli attack on a UN-run school used as a shelter for adults and children in the Jabaliya area north of Gaza City. The Israeli military said it had received reports of “an incident” in the Jabaliya area and was investigating.
A graphic video, the location of which was verified by The Times, showed bodies lying among widespread rubble at the school, Al-Fakhura, which was run by UNRWA, the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees.
The head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said on social media on Saturday that he had received “horrifying images and images of dozens of dead and injured” at an UNRWA school “that houses thousands of displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Later Mr Lazzarini added that another UNRWA school had been “bombed multiple times in northern #Gaza and sheltering more than 4,000 people.” He said this was the “second time in less than 24 hours that schools have not been spared. ENOUGH, these horrors must stop.”
An UNRWA spokeswoman said the later message referred to the Zeitoun School in Gaza City, which was hit around 3pm on Friday.
The agency did not know the final toll at either school on Saturday; UNRWA has not been able to directly monitor conditions in its northern Gaza facilities since an Israeli evacuation order for the north on October 12. At the time, nearly 160,000 displaced people sought shelter in 57 of its schools, UNRWA said. Since the start of the Israeli offensive, classes have been suspended across Gaza and schools have been converted into shelters.
The Israeli military says its intensive bombing campaign is targeting Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, but its command posts and depots are deeply enmeshed in – and in tunnels under – Gaza’s neighborhoods. The Israeli bombardment has hit locations such as apartment buildings, mosques and markets, and Israeli officials have called these locations legitimate targets while saying they are trying to limit damage to civilians.
The Israeli military said Saturday it is “committed to international law, including taking feasible steps to minimize harm to civilians.” It had said earlier in the day it engaged in intense fighting in Jabaliya, where it claimed the command and control center of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade was located.
The White House spoke with U.N. and Israeli officials to learn more about the attack on a school shelter, said Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
“We are aware of reports that civilians may have been killed while protecting at least one UNRWA school in northern Gaza,” Ms Watson said. “Any damage to a UN facility where civilians are sheltering is unacceptable.”
The civilian toll of Israel’s campaign in Gaza has drawn mounting criticism from U.N. officials, who have called for an urgent ceasefire, and growing anger from Israel’s Middle Eastern neighbors. The Qatari Foreign Ministry on Saturday denounced the destruction of the Al-Fakhura school. accusatory Israel calls it a “blatant violation of the principles of international law” and calls for a UN investigation into attacks on hospitals and schools in Gaza.
“The ministry warns that the silence of the international community on the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people will increase tension, widen the cycle of violence and lead to further escalation and instability,” the ministry said.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has said that Al-Fakhura school was hit earlier by an Israeli airstrike in early November that killed 15 people and injured 70.
Aaron Bokserman, Neil Collier, Iyad Abuheweila Aric Toler And Lisa Friedman reporting contributed.