Israeli strikes on Gaza kill over 50 in school-turned-shelter, home
Iran: Attacks on refugee camps clear example of war crime
Israeli attacks on northern Gaza killed more than 50 people on Monday as attacks on civilian infrastructure are rising amid the regime’s intensified offensive on the Palestinian territory.
Among the targets hit was a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and a family home in Jabalia, according to Palestinian Civil Defense officials.
At least 33 people were killed in an attack in the middle of the night on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency. The school had been sheltering “hundreds” of people, Bassal said, adding that those killed were mostly children and women. Dozens were injured, he added.
The Israeli military claimed on Monday that the target of the attack had been a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad control center.
In a separate attack on a residence in the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, 19 members of the Abd Rabbo family were killed, according to Bassal. A nearby tent camp in Gaza City was also targeted, according to unconfirmed reports, killing six people. The attacks came days after an Israeli air strike hit the home of a doctor and killed nine of her 10 children. Nasser hospital said one of Dr Alaa al-Najjar's children and her husband were injured, but survived.
Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Monday that the regime’s attacks on refugee camps is a clear example of a war crime and in line with the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Baqaei said that Israel has intensified its crimes against defenseless Palestinians on a daily basis due to the silence and lack of effective international action and knows no boundaries in its brutality and violation of international norms.
Despite mounting international pressure, which has pushed Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated last week that Israel would carry out an intensified military campaign until it controls the whole of Gaza. International humanitarian law forbids attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools. But Israel has repeatedly bombed schools, mostly being used as shelter by displaced people, throughout its 19-month war in Gaza. The Israeli attacks have triggered international criticism, with European and Arab leaders meeting in Spain calling for an end to the "inhumane" and "senseless" war.
In Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz voiced unusually strong criticism of Israel, saying, "I no longer understand what the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, with what goal."
The impact on Gazan civilians "can no longer be justified," he added.
Nevertheless, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin would continue selling weapons to Tel Aviv.