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14-09-2024
GAZA STRIP: Israel’s military continued to pound Gaza, killing 40 more Palestinians as international condemnation mounted over an Israeli attack that killed at least 18 people at a United Nations-run school, including six aid workers.
UN chief Antonio Guterres reiterated his demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza following the attack on al-Jaouni school, saying the “horrific violence” in the Palestinian enclave “must stop”.
About 25 percent of people wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza at least 22,500 Palestinians have “life-changing” injuries, according to the World Health Organization.
At least 41,118 people have been killed and 95,125 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. In Israel, the number of those killed in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 is at least 1,139, while more than 200 people were taken captive.
The UN human rights office said Israel’s use of military, combat-like means and methods in its ongoing raids on the occupied West Bank is “unlawful” and can “only lead to a cycle of further instability and violence”.
Between September 10 and 12 alone, Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including a woman and a boy, it said and information gathered by OHCHR “indicates intense shooting by Israeli forces in densely populated areas resulting in apparently unlawful killings, including of unarmed bystanders, reportedly including a staff member of UNRWA shot in the chest as he stood on the rooftop of his home”, it said.
The office said Israeli forces have also used bulldozers and explosive devices to destroy roads, houses and other civilian infrastructure, “impacting and interrupting access to basic services such as water, sewage and electricity”. It also noted that Israeli forces have laid siege to municipal hospitals, stopped and searched Palestinian ambulances and detained medical personnel.
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has condemned Israel’s attack on al-Jaouni school in central Gaza and said the military’s latest assault on displaced Palestinians emphasizes its failure to comply with international humanitarian law.
The bombing of al-Jaouni which killed at least 18 people, including six UN staff came after Israeli forces launched at least 16 attacks on Gaza’s school-turned-shelters in August alone, OHCHR said.
This comes up to a “rate of one school attack every other day”, it said.
The office also addressed Israel’s claims it was targeting Hamas fighters in the attacks.
Even if this were the case, it does “not negate the Israeli forces’ obligations under international law to comply with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack,” OHCHR said.
“The pattern of attacks on shelters leading to verifiably high civilian fatalities, especially in an area that the Israeli military has unilaterally declared safe, suggests a complete disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians and raises grave concerns about the systematic commission of disproportionate attacks or attacks directed at civilians, which are war crimes,” it added.
The Wafa news agency is reporting that municipal workers in the occupied West Bank city and its refugee camp have begun making repairs and removing rubble and debris from the streets after Israeli forces withdrew from the area on Thursday afternoon. The agency reported “great and widespread destruction” in the city and its refugee camp after the deadly three-day operation.
At least five Palestinians, including a girl were killed, while several more were arrested, it said. (Int’l News Desk)
