GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center))The Hamas Movement has described the Israeli occupation army’s claim that there were resistance fighters inside the UNRWA-run Al-Jaouni School in an-Nuseirat refugee camp as “pure lies” aimed at justifying its attack that claimed the lives of 16 displaced civilians and injured dozens sheltering in the school.
In a statement on Saturday, Hamas accused the Israeli army of trying to provide pretexts for its crimes and massacres and hide its clear goals of exterminating the Palestinian people and destroying all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip.
“Shelters for displaced citizens and UNRWA schools and facilities have been exposed to systematic attacks and destruction that claimed the lives of hundreds of our people, including children, women and elderlies,” Hamas said.
“The number of the bombed UNRWA facilities has reached 190 shelter centers — a situation that reflects the criminal intents of the Nazi occupation government and its plan to destroy them and kill the largest number of defenseless civilians sheltering inside them as part of its ongoing fascist war of extermination against our people,” Hamas added.
The Movement stressed that Israel’s brutal massacres and massive destruction policy in Gaza are “war crimes and a flagrant violation of the international law that require a clear position from the international community and action to hold Israeli leaders accountable.”
At least 16 displaced civilians were martyred in an Israeli attack on the Al-Jaouni School, which is used as a shelter center, in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Government Media Office (GMO) said.
In a statement, GMO added that more than 75 people were also injured in the attack on the school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp.
GMO also said that the Israeli army had bombed more than 17 shelter centers, including schools, in an-Nuseirat camp since the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza.
“There are only two hospitals in the central governorate, ‘Al-Aqsa and Al-Awda,’ and these two hospitals are unable to provide proper health and medical services as a result of the severe overcrowding and the many casualties that were evacuated to them over the past months,” GMO pointed out.
“There are great challenges facing the humanitarian and health work in an-Nuseirat camp and the central governorate as a result of the genocidal war,” GMP underlined.
Reporting from Deir al-Balah yesterday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khudari said hundreds of Palestinian families had sought shelter at the Al-Jaouni School after they were forced to flee Israel’s bombardment in other areas of Gaza.
The families “chose the middle area of the Gaza Strip because Israeli forces claimed it was a safe zone,” Khudari said.
Last month, an Israeli attack on an UNRWA-run school – also in Nuseirat refugee camp – killed at least 40 people and injured dozens more.
