Israel has targeted 13 shelter centers in Gaza since the beginning of August alone, the Civil Defense spokesman in the Palestinian enclave, Mahmoud Basal, said on Saturday.
“We demand the world to intervene immediately to stop the massacres against defenseless civilians in shelters,” Basal said.
The latest attack came on Saturday when over 100 Palestinians were killed while performing Fajr prayers by an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Tabaeen School, which hosted thousands of displaced people, in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City.
In a press conference, Basal said the Israeli attack on the Tabaeen school turned shelter targeted two floors, one housing women and the other serving as a prayer room for displaced Palestinians.
The Civil Defense spokesperson confirmed that the attack resulted in a high number of casualties with many still unaccounted for, and demanded the world “to intervene immediately to stop the massacres against defenseless civilians in shelters.”
This was reiterated by the director general of Gaza’s Government Media Office, Ismail al-Thawabt, who 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”.
For its part, the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas described the latest massacre in a statement as “a horrific crime that constitutes a dangerous escalation.”
The statement also called on the international community including all Arab and Islamic countries “to fulfill their responsibilities and take urgent action to stop these massacres and halt the escalating Zionist aggression against our people and defenseless citizens.”
In parallel, the Fatah movement described the strike of Al-Tabaeen School as a “heinous bloody massacre” that represents the “peak of terrorism and criminality”.
A statement issued by the movement said that “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.”
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,677 Palestinians have been killed, and 91,645 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.