UN says ‘tragic’ attacks on schools in Gaza ‘have become routine’

Hamas warns against Israel’s alleged calls for Palestinian families to ‘return to their homes in the north’

June 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, pointed out this Tuesday how “tragic” that the Israeli Army’s attacks against schools in the Gaza Strip “have become routine” just one day after a bombing against a school now used as a shelter for forcibly displaced people left at least twelve dead and more than twenty injured.

“It is tragic that this has become routine. It is tragic. And let’s be clear, it is a building that was used as a school. There are no more UN-run schools in Gaza. The children do not receive an education,” Dujarric said during a press conference when asked about the frequency of this type of actions.

After that, he assured that the United Nations has a list of all the incidents recorded against UN facilities that include both the bombings and their use by combatants.

The commissioner general of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has confirmed the attack, which has left twelve dead and 22 injured, and that more than 190 UNRWA buildings have already been attacked or damaged since on October 7, which represents more than half of its facilities in the Palestinian enclave.

A few hours earlier, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had denounced the attack on the school located in Shati, while the Israeli Army justified it by its use by “Hamas terrorists.”

On the other hand, the Government of the Strip, controlled by the Palestinian group, has warned citizens of the enclave about Israel’s calls for Palestinian families to “return to their homes in the north.”

“We warn our people of suspicious communications in which it is said that the occupation is calling families to return to their homes in the north. (…) We call on our honorable Palestinian people to be extremely distrustful of these suspicious and unreliable communications, and we ask you to act with the utmost caution, since the crimes committed by the occupation have been previously repeated against many of our people who attempted on similar occasions to return to the Northern governorates,” the Office has published of Gaza Government Media on its Telegram channel.

The Israeli Army launched its offensive against the Strip after the aforementioned attacks carried out on October 7, which left some 1,200 dead and nearly 240 kidnapped. Since then, the Gaza authorities, controlled by the Islamist group, have reported more than 37,600 deaths, to which are added more than 550 Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem at the hands of Israeli forces or in attacks by settlers.