Report: The occupation’s destruction of schools and health centers in Gaza is a continuation of genocide

Ramallah – Ma’an – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that the Israeli army, during its ground invasion of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in southern Gaza and Jabalia in northern Gaza, deliberately destroyed schools and health facilities, insisting on comprehensive destruction of all aspects and components of life in the Gaza Strip as part of the crime of genocide targeting The Palestinians are there.

The Observatory said in a statement: The withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood south of Gaza City this morning, Wednesday, May 15, seven days after the ground incursion, revealed with it the destruction of three schools: Ain Jalut, Atta Al-Shawa, and Hassan Al-Nakhalah, which were previously mentioned. It was built with Japanese funding, in addition to the destruction of the Zaytoun Medical Clinic, which served about 80,000 residents of the neighborhood.

Euro-Med highlighted that the Israeli army’s military operation in the ‘Zaytoun’ neighborhood, which began at dawn last
Thursday – the third since the start of the aggression on the Gaza Strip – included a ground incursion with military vehicles and heavy air and artillery raids, which forced hundreds of families to forcibly move, and was accompanied by the blowing up of more squares. Residential buildings, turning the neighborhood into piles of rubble.

Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights highlighted that, at 4:30 in the morning on Wednesday, Israeli warplanes bombed the four-storey building of the Al-Sabra Clinic, which is entrusted to UNRWA in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza, and which was housing about 50 displaced people, including women, children, and injured people, which led to deaths and injuries. A number of them, and the rest survived after being recovered from under the rubble.

He pointed out that the aerial bombardment of the clinic came two days after the Israeli forces entered and destroyed the outer wall of the clinic, and then did not ask those inside to evacuate, which gave them a feeling of securit
y, before the Israeli forces betrayed them and bombed the clinic with military aircraft without warning.

Mrs. Safiya Rushdi Arhaim (43 years old) told the Euro-Med crew: She was displaced with her husband and children from the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the Al-Sabra Clinic, and they were surprised at dawn today by F-16 warplanes flying over several times before they launched 4 missiles at the four floors, destroying them and everyone on them. She added that her husband, Tayseer Suleiman Arhaim (47 years old), was wounded, wounded for the second time in a row, during this war, along with her son Suleiman (24 years old). She stated that she and the rest of the displaced felt relatively safe in the clinic, especially after the Israeli forces penetrated the area and destroyed its outer wall with bulldozers. She did not ask them to leave the place, but rather delivered messages to them by phone after approaching the Zaytoun neighborhood, so they remained in place until the planes came and destroyed the clinic. on
them. She confirmed that she and her family members emerged from under the rubble, while several families were killed and wounded.

Euro-Mediterranean also pointed out that during the past few days, Israeli forces stormed 6 UNRWA schools in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, which were housing thousands of displaced people, after they bombed them and opened fire on them. They displaced the displaced people inside them again, and arrested and killed a number of them. It is not yet known with certainty whether Was it completely destroyed or was it satisfied with the partial destruction it sustained as a result of the bombing?

He pointed out that these schools are in addition to the hundreds that have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli forces since October 7, whether by air or artillery bombardment, or by blowing them up with explosives, or bulldozing them.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory highlighted that Israel completely or partially destroyed 80% of the schools in the Gaza Strip in its mi
litary attack since the 7th of last October, which United Nations experts described in a joint statement issued on the 18th of last April, as representing educational genocide and depriving a generation. Another of the Palestinians from their future.

He pointed out that these data were confirmed by a study conducted by the New York Times, which revealed that more than 80% of schools and universities in Gaza were destroyed or severely damaged since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7. The study indicated that more than 200 schools in the Strip were damaged. Direct strikes by missiles, bombs or artillery.

Euro-Med pointed out that even the schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which have turned into shelter centers for hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced civilians, have been and are still being subjected to intense Israeli attacks – some of them repeatedly and at sporadic periods – including in the territories. Which the Israeli
army announced was classified as ‘safe’.

He stated that the Israeli army worked systematically to militarize civilian objects, including converting schools, educational facilities and hospitals into military bases, as part of its ongoing military attack on the Gaza Strip for the eighth month, in flagrant violation of international law and the rules of war.

Euro-Med said that the Israeli army was not content with systematic and widespread targeting of schools with bombing and massive destruction, committing serious crimes against people protected inside them and targeting them directly and deliberately with air and ground military operations, murders and direct unlawful executions, but rather it turned a number of them into military bases and a concentration of its forces and vehicles. , detention and interrogation centers and torture violations, in contravention of the rules of international humanitarian law established to protect civilian persons and civilian objects from the danger of military operations,
and in violation of the obligations imposed on Israel as the occupying power, under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires taking all necessary measures to ensure the education of children and orphans. Children separated from their parents due to war.

He also pointed out that the Turkish Friendship Hospital was transformed into an Israeli military site after parts of it were destroyed by bombing and bulldozing, something that was repeated with many civilian objects.

In this context, Euro-Med recalled that many schools in various areas of the Gaza Strip were transformed by the Israeli army into military bases and detention centers during its field invasion of most areas of the Strip, including the ‘Salah al-Din Preparatory School’ in Gaza City, which was transformed into a detention and interrogation center for hundreds. Population last February.

He pointed out that the Israeli army, in many cases, destroyed and blew up civilian objects after converting them into military headquarters, as it did month
s ago at Al-Isra University, south of Gaza City, and all of this was done without any regard to the rules of international humanitarian law, including discrimination, proportionality, and military necessity.

It is estimated that more than 6,500 students and 756 teachers were killed and thousands more injured in the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip until mid-April, while the numbers increase every day, and at least 625,000 students continue to be deprived of their right to education over the course of a full academic year. .

Euro-Med recalled the statements of the head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Songai, in which he said that the educational system in Gaza ‘no longer exists at this stage,’ with schools being used as shelters or destroyed in Israeli bombing operations, so that no There is a space for children to learn.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory documented in a report on December 13 that the Israeli army
turned schools used as shelters by tens of thousands of displaced people into military centers and field executions. At the time, Euro-Med published testimonies about Israeli army forces carrying out deliberate executions and killings against Palestinian civilians after detaining them for days inside schools where they had taken refuge after their expulsion from their homes and forced displacement.

Last March, about a hundred distinguished European academics condemned in a petition launched by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory the crime of genocide committed by Israel against civilians in Gaza and its deliberate liquidation, both physically and culturally, including targeting and systematic destruction of the educational system in the Strip.

Euro-Med stressed the importance of protecting schools during the military attacks launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip, and the need for the international community to pressure Israel to stop its military operations against and inside schools in the Strip, as thi
s is an indispensable necessity to guarantee the right of Palestinian children to education, and to ensure their return to their schools as quickly as possible. As soon as possible, despite the enormous need for repairs and reconstruction of these schools, verify the absence of weapons and military equipment before this school can be used again safely.

Euro-Med pointed out that the practice of converting educational facilities into military bases is an extension of the colonial legacy based on domination and the dismantling of the original and basic components of peoples, especially cultural and educational.

Euro-Med reminds the international community of the catastrophic conditions in which children live in the Gaza Strip, who are essentially considered one of the most vulnerable groups in times of armed conflict. Today, they are suffering more from the consequences of the ongoing Israeli military attack on the Strip, and they no longer enjoy any type of protection assigned to them. Under international law
, they have become a direct and deliberate target of murders, executions, and deliberate and indiscriminate targeting carried out by the Israeli army, in addition to being victims of crimes of starvation, siege, deprivation of health care and basic survival necessities, and deprivation of education for long periods, which will affect their ability to enjoy their other rights and make them They are more vulnerable to poverty, unemployment and exploitation, in addition to the risk of depriving entire generations of education and undermining their ability to rebuild Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip after the end of the Israeli military attack.

The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor renewed its demand for the necessity of enabling investigation committees and specialized technical committees to enter the Gaza Strip and investigate the horrific crimes committed by Israel, and to hold it accountable for its serious violation of all rules of international law, including the International Convention on the Prevention a
nd Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, by collectively targeting the population of the Strip for being Palestinians, including the approach of killing, physical and mental abuse, undermining their survival capabilities, and imposing mass forced displacement.

Source: Maan News Agency