Arab News Headlines

Report: Israel deliberately bombs shelters for displaced people and kills them under the flag of the United Nations


Gaza – Together – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that Israel is adopting a systematic policy of targeting residents and civilian individuals in the Gaza Strip who are protected under international humanitarian law, wherever they are, and depriving them of any stability, even temporary, in displacement and shelter centers, by intensifying the bombing of these centers on the heads of the displaced. within it, and targeting areas declared as humanitarian zones; In an insistence on imposing forced displacement and destroying all basic necessities of life as part of the ongoing crime of genocide since October 7 last year.

Euro-Med added in a statement that, despite the passage of nearly nine months since the Israeli military attack on a sector in which the Israeli military forces have not stopped bombing civilian objects, mass killing civilians, targeting United Nations asylum centers, and committing mass murders there, each of which constitutes an international crime. It stands on its own a
nd is complete.

He explained that following the methodology of Israeli bombing indicates the existence of a clear policy aimed at removing security from the entire Gaza Strip and depriving the Palestinians of shelter or stability, even if temporarily, through continued bombing throughout the Strip and focusing on targeting shelter centers in UNRWA schools.

Euro-Med highlighted that it documented 4 attacks since dawn today, Tuesday, June 25, against shelter centers, in addition to the destruction of several homes on the heads of their residents, which led to dozens of deaths and injuries, most of them women and children, indicating that this afternoon, Israeli aircraft bombed the Nadi shelter center. Al-Jazeera, west of Gaza City, killing one displaced person and wounding others.

At dawn on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft bombed the Abdel Fattah Hamoud School, which houses displaced people in central Gaza, killing 8 displaced people, all of them from the Al-Jarro family. They are an elderly woman, her son, his wi
fe, and their five children. A number of citizens were also injured.

At dawn on the same day, Israeli aircraft bombed the UNRWA ‘Asmaa C’ school, which houses displaced people in the Beach camp, west of Gaza, killing 11 displaced people, including 5 women and 4 children.

Note that the school itself was subjected to Israeli bombing at noon on Friday, June 7, which led to the death of four of the displaced people in the school, and the wounding of five others. The bombing at that time also affected a room inside the school containing toys intended for children and used to implement psychological relief programs for children. .

On Sunday afternoon, June 23, Israeli aircraft bombed the ‘Industry’ headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and targeted two rooms at the western gate of the building, killing four workers in the humanitarian aid committees. Other displaced persons were also injured.

On Friday afternoon, June 21, Israeli tanks that had advanced into Rafah fi
red several artillery shells at the tents of the displaced in Al-Mawasi, west of Rafah city, followed by shelling from Israeli drones, which led to the tents catching fire and killing 25 of the displaced, and wounding 45 others with various injuries and burns, most of the victims being children and women. Other shells also fell near the “Shams Chalet”, which is used by the International Committee of the Red Cross as a headquarters and residence for its mission and its workers, and is located on Al-Rashid Coastal Street, west of Al-Mawasi area, causing damage to it.

On June 6, Israeli aircraft bombed a school housing thousands of displaced people in the Nuseirat camp, which led to the death of 40 of the displaced, including children and women.

Euro-Med highlighted that, in addition to bombing shelter centers, Israeli aircraft bombed, during the past 24 hours, at least 12 homes in various parts of the Strip, leading to the death and injury of dozens, some of whom are still under the rubble.

Euro-Med stressed
that the widening scope of targeting shelter centers that fly the United Nations flag and homes housing displaced people, and identifying the nature of their victims, including families and families that are exterminated and erased from the civil registry, demonstrates the incorrectness of the Israeli justifications, and that the bombing actually violates the principles of distinction, necessity, proportionality, and taking necessary precautions. In addition to being part of an operation that used firepower to inflict grave harm on civilians and destroy their lives and their ability to live and settle.

He stressed that repeatedly attacking United Nations buildings and killing the displaced inside them, as well as destroying and burning them, is a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law, and constitutes war crimes in and of itself, and comes in parallel with political incitement and administrative and legislative decisions that seek to undermine the work of the United Nations organization.

He rec
alled that during the invasion of Jabalia and its camp last month, Israeli forces destroyed and burned all the shelter centers established in UNRWA schools.

Citizen ‘Walaa Khaled Dabour’ (42 years old), who was displaced at the beginning of the war on Gaza from the city of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip to the shelter center of Al-Quds Primary School in Jabalia Camp – Abu Zeitoun Schools – narrates the details of how the Israeli occupation army stormed the shelter, and forced a citizen to burn All the center’s rooms were under the threat of fire from the Quadcopter that was flying above them: ‘The displaced people with us in the shelter center began evacuating on May 12, 2024, in light of the intensification of the artillery shelling, and we remained in the center, which is located as the last school in Abu Zatoun schools on the eastern side. It was We numbered 15 people, me, my husband, my children, my husband’s mother, his sister, and her children. We said that we would remain in the room without g
oing out, because there was no shelter to go to. On May 15, precisely at the time of the noon call to prayer, a man in his forties entered us, showing signs of torture And he beat us. He reassured us and told us that he was Palestinian like us, and that we must leave now with an itinerary that he had set for us. At the army’s request, he was carrying a flammable substance and matches. My daughter asked him what she would do. He told us: ‘The soldiers told me after they beat me and detained me for hours.’ To enter this shelter center, and tell those who remained inside to immediately go out to the road leading to the detention of citizens near the concentration of occupation soldiers, and to enter every room and burn it completely. They warned me against any attempt to escape or failure to do so, and that a small plane would monitor me and would open fire. “If this is not implemented.” He told us that the soldiers told him not to leave any room inside the shelter without burning it. He determined the exit rout
e for us, at a time when the occupation soldiers were still more than 200 meters away from the shelter center, in the back area of ??the shelter, which is the Mazaya hall area. Indeed, the young man started burning the rooms, and we all went out towards the designated path, and there were small planes in the air. I went out carrying the white flag and all my family members behind me, until we reached the gathering place designated by the army. We only sat there for a few minutes, until the army asked us to walk west, on a route it had specified for us, and spared my husband, Ali Abdul Raouf Dabour, and my son, who is 18 years old. We still do not know any information about them, and we do not know what happened to them. We returned to the same shelter with the withdrawal of the occupation army, to find that the fire had consumed all the rooms and destroyed the mattresses and supplies of all the displaced people in the center. We returned to live in the same room despite the darkness and the fire that had occu
rred, so there was no other place to go.’

According to UNRWA, over the past eight months, Israeli forces have bombed more than 190 UNRWA buildings and killed more than 460 displaced persons as a result, despite UNRWA sharing the coordinates of all its facilities (including schools that house shelters) with the Israeli military and other parties to the conflict.

He also pointed out that Israel continues to expand its military operations in Rafah, including completing military redeployment and positioning along the border with Egypt, while continuing the bombing and forced displacement of the population, in flagrant violation of the rules of international law and the decision of the International Court of Justice that the attack on the governorate must be stopped, reminding that Israel It did not delay in publicly rejecting the court’s decision, by intensifying the bombing, killing, and destruction immediately after the session ended and afterwards.

He stressed that civilians in Rafah are paying the price fo
r Israeli military attacks that seriously violate the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the principles of distinction, proportionality and military necessity.

Based on the above, Euro-Med renewed its call for all countries to assume their international responsibilities by imposing effective sanctions on Israel, and stopping all forms of political, financial and military support and cooperation provided to it, including immediately stopping arms transfers to it, including export licenses and military aid, otherwise… These countries are complicit and complicit in the crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, including the crime of genocide.

The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor also urged the International Criminal Court to continue investigating all crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, expand the scope of investigation into individual criminal responsibility for these crimes to include all those responsible for them, issue arrest warrants against them, and recognize and deal with the crimes c
ommitted by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Gaza is considered an unambiguous crime of genocide, as it is an international crime that falls within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Source: Maan News Agency