CrossFireArabia
Israel has escalated its systematic policy of targeting—without warning—schools functioning as shelters for forcibly displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding hundreds of them. This policy is part of the ongoing genocide that Israel has been waging against Palestinians in the Strip since 7 October 2023.
The Israeli military targeted the Halima al-Sadia School, which provides shelter to hundreds of internally displaced people in Jabalia al-Nazla, in the north of the Gaza Strip, at midnight on Saturday 7 September 2024. The school was bombed by Israeli aircraft, according to the Euro-Med Monitor field team. Four people were killed and several others were injured in the attack.
On Saturday afternoon, Israeli planes then bombed the Amr Ibn al-Aas School, north of Gaza City, which was also housing displaced people. Four Palestinians, including a child, were killed, and several others were injured.
Since the beginning of August, the Israeli occupation army has bombed 16 schools being used as shelters in the Gaza Strip, 15 of them located north of Gaza Valley. Two hundred and seventeen Palestinians have been killed in the reported attacks, while hundreds more have been injured, a large number of casualties being women and children.
In the past week, the Israeli army has increased its targeting of civilians in the Gaza City and North Gaza governorates by bombing residential buildings, civilian gatherings, and commercial stalls there, in addition to shelter centres and their surrounding areas.
There is no legitimate reason to target schools above the heads of displaced individuals, and this act is a blatant violation of the principles of distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and the obligation to exercise appropriate caution. Every time it launches an attack, the Israeli army attempts to justify its actions by claiming that it is attacking military targets, but it never offers any proof to support these assertions.
By killing and forcibly displacing as many Palestinians as possible from their land, these attacks are a part of the genocide being carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
According to preliminary investigations conducted by the Euro-Med Monitor field team, the Israeli army has deliberately destroyed all of the remaining shelters in the north of the Gaza Strip, including schools and public facilities. This destruction has been committed with the goal of establishing a coercive environment, in order to compel the civilian population to leave their neighbourhoods and evacuate to the central and southern sections of the Strip.
Additional evidence of Israel’s clear intention to push Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip is the plan leaked by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which published an article claiming that the Israeli army is currently researching options to drive out and displace the remaining Palestinians in the northern Gaza Valley under what is known as the “Generals’ Plan”.
Yedioth Ahronoth pointed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conversation with the army about launching a fourth phase of his bloody war, centred on driving out residents of the northern Gaza Strip. This suggests that the plan for forced displacement, which has been in place since the beginning of this genocide—now in its 11th consecutive month—is still in effect, in the absence of any strong international opposition to Israel’s attempt to annihilate the Palestinian people.
The United States and numerous European nations’ complicity in Israel’s horrific crimes against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, coupled with the international community’s near silence and lack of action to halt the genocide there, is enabling Israel to finalise its plan to exterminate the Palestinian people in large numbers, through forced displacement and direct and indirect killing.
Israel’s bombing strategy reveals a deliberate policy to target Palestinians civilians everywhere in the Gaza Strip; spread fear among them; deny them stability or shelter, even for brief periods of time; force them to evacuate repeatedly; subject them to life-threatening conditions; and ultimately destroy them. The bombing continues throughout the entire Strip, with Israel targeting places designated as humanitarian areas, mainly shelter centres, including those set up in UNRWA-run schools.
As of the time of publication, the Israeli military has been attacking the Gaza Strip for 11 months. During this time, Israel has been carrying out military operations against civilian targets, killing large numbers of civilians in the process. These attacks have also targeting refugee centres, the majority of which were housed in UN buildings, and have killed large numbers of people there, all of which constitutes crimes against humanity, full-fledged war crimes, and genocide.
As part of their international obligations, all nations must put an end to Israel’s crimes of genocide and other serious offenses in the Gaza Strip; safeguard civilians there; ensure Israel abides by international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice; and impose effective sanctions on Israel by halting all forms of military, financial, and political cooperation and support. This includes an immediate stop to all arms sales, exports, and transfers to Israel, including export licenses and military aid.
All nations that cooperate with Israel in committing crimes must be held accountable, especially those that provide Israel with any kind of direct support or assistance. This includes giving aid and engaging in contractual agreements with Israel relating to the military, intelligence, politics, law, finance, and the media, among other domains that might help its crimes continue.
At the international, regional, and local levels, all possible avenues for accountability must be explored with urgency. This includes serious joint work to activate the path of universal jurisdiction, in order to hold accountable perpetrators of crimes against Palestinian civilians before the national courts of countries where such jurisdiction exists.
The International Criminal Court must act quickly to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant; broaden the scope of its investigation into individual criminal responsibility for crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, to include everyone involved; issue warrants for their arrest; hold them accountable; and categorically declare Israel’s ongoing crimes to be genocide.
