Palestinian authorities say more than 100 people were killed and dozens wounded at the al-Tabin school, including women and children [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]
Gaza City, August 10 (RHC)-- An Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City has killed more than 100 people including women and children, according to Palestinian officials, who expect the death toll to rise.
The Israeli army on Saturday claimed its air forces struck a “command and control center” of Hamas, without providing any evidence. Tel Aviv said it had taken steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians -- refusing to provide proof of such measures.
Local doctors are “struggling to cope” as victims of the attack on al-Tabin School, many “in pieces,” are brought in, say eyewitnesses in the besieged and bombarded territory.
Resistance groups and countries in the region have strongly condemned the Israeli bombing of the school early Saturday.
Here are some reactions to the attack:
Hamas
“The massacre at al-Tabin school in the Daraj neighbourhood in central Gaza City is a horrific crime that constitutes a dangerous escalation,” said the movement that governs the Gaza Strip.
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, said there were no armed men at the school.
Hamas said in its statement that Israel’s claims of the school being used as the group’s command centre are “excuses to target civilians, schools, hospitals, and refugee tents, all of which are false pretexts and exposed lies to justify its crimes”.
“We call on our Arab and Islamic countries and the international community to fulfill their responsibilities and take urgent action to stop these massacres and halt the escalating Zionist aggression against our people and defenseless citizens,” the statement ends.
Ismail al-Thawabta, the director general of Gaza’s Government Media Office, called on the international community and United Nations Security Council “to pressure Israel to end this cascading bloodbath among our people, namely innocent women and children”.
Fatah
Fatah, the rival Palestinian faction that last month signed a “national unity” agreement with Hamas, said the attack was a “heinous bloody massacre” that represents the “peak of terrorism and criminality”.
“Committing these massacres confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt its efforts to exterminate our people through the policy of cumulative killing and mass massacres that make living consciences tremble,” it said in a statement.
Iran
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, said the Israeli government’s goal was to thwart ceasefire negotiations and continue the war.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Israel had again shown that it wasn’t committed to international law, as he condemned the attack as genocide and a war crime.
He urged immediate action from the UN Security Council and said Israel’s actions in Gaza were a threat to international peace and security.
Qatar
Qatar’s foreign ministry has condemned the attack saying it constitutes a “horrific massacre and a brutal crime against defenceless civilians.”
It called again for a UN independent fact-finding mission to investigate attacks on centres sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza and demanded that the international community oblige Israel to uphold international law and ensure their protection.
Egypt
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Israel’s “deliberate killing” of unarmed Palestinians shows that it lacks the political will to end the war in Gaza.
It accused Israel of repeatedly committing “large-scale crimes” against “unarmed civilians” whenever there is an international push for a ceasefire, in a statement cited by the state-run Middle East News Agency.
It said such attacks reflect “an unprecedented disregard” for international law.
Egypt, the United States and Qatar have called for a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday, as fears grow of a broader conflict, involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Jordan
Israel’s attack goes against “all humanitarian values” and is “an indication of the Israeli government’s attempt to block [peace] efforts and postpone them”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
It added that “the absence of a decisive international stance to restrain Israeli aggression and compel it to respect international law and stop its aggression against Gaza” was resulting in unprecedented killings, deaths and human catastrophe”.
Saudi Arabia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it denounced the attack in the “strongest terms” and stressed that “mass massacres” in the enclave “need to stop”.
Gaza is “experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe due to the ongoing violations of international law”, the ministry said.
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The strike was “an extension of the brutal massacres and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation for more than ten months in the Gaza Strip”, the OIC said.
It called on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to oblige Israel to respect its obligations as occupying power under international law and provide protection to the Palestinian people.
UN rapporteur
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, condemned the world’s “indifference” to mass bloodshed in Gaza following the attack.
“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European weapons,” Albanese posted on X.
“May the Palestinians forgive us for our collective inability to protect them, honouring the most basic meaning of international law.”
Save the Children
Tamer Kirolos, a regional director for the United Kingdom-based charity, called it the “deadliest attack on a school since last October”.
“It is devastating to see the toll this has taken, including so many children and people at the school for dawn prayers,” Kirolos said, adding that “children make up around 40 percent of the population and of people killed and injured since October” in the enclave.
“Civilians, children, must be protected. An immediate definitive ceasefire is the only foreseeable way that will happen.”
