An Israeli bombing of the Al Tabain school in Gaza, which local authorities say left a hundred dead and dozens wounded, could derail international efforts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, and Hamas and fuel the crisis in the Middle East.
The Israeli Air Force bombed the Al Tabain school, located in Gaza City, which served as a shelter for about 6,000 displaced people, while morning prayers were being offered.
Hamas – which controls the Gaza Strip – and the enclave's Civil Defense agree that the attack left around a hundred dead and dozens wounded, but Israel has disputed the figures, saying they “do not match” information from its army or with “the precision ammunition used and the accuracy of the attack.”
Gaza authorities They expect the death toll to rise significantly, as the injured – many of them in serious condition – have severe burns and severed limbs, which cannot be treated due to the lack of medical equipment.
Palestinian families say goodbye to some of those killed in the Israeli attack that hit a school in Gaza this Saturday. Photo: AP Israel justified the attack by claiming the alleged presence of militants at the school and assured that it took “numerous measures to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians”, including aerial surveillance and intelligence information.
This statement “is an insult to world intelligence. The hundred dead are civilians, there are no fighters among them,” replied Izat al Rishq, a member of Hamas' political bureau.
horror images
Dantesque footage of the aftermath of the attack, showing massive damage to the school's mosque, abounds burning corpses, bloody books of the Koran and screaming children Amidst the dismembered bodies, they made a splash and toured the world.
Gaza's Civil Defense – which claims the attack was carried out with three missiles, including an American MK-84 weighing almost a ton – said the deaths in the Strip “have become mere numbers, without condemnation from the international community”. the Israeli occupation”.
This happens while the international community does one intense pressure to force Israel and Hamas to sign a cease-fireafter more than 10 months of war.
Israel's attack destroyed a school housing Palestinians displaced by the war in the Strip. Photo: REUTERSThe mediating countries – the United States, Qatar and Egypt – called on the parties to address the “details” of the agreement next Thursday, an invitation to which only Israel has agreed.
Severe global punishment
“The Al Tabain school massacre is a terrible crime that constitutes a dangerous escalation,” Hamas said, blaming Israel and the United States, the Jewish state's main partner and arms supplier, for “the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing.” against the Palestinians.
According to the UN, it is Israel's 21st attack on a school which serves as a shelter for displaced persons in just over a month.
The Palestinian National Authority, which governs small parts of the occupied West Bank, considered that “the massacre of the parish is a failure of the international community and a crime that should not go unpunished”, as “granting Israel immunity is encourages him to continue to carry out massacres in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said yes “terrified” from the Israeli attack, while several countries of the Middle East – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, United Arab Emirates – showed their rejection.
They were joined by France, Russia and, of course, Iran, Israel's greatest enemy and which, along with the Lebanese Shia militia, Hezbollah. threatens an attack on Israel.
Prayers and sorrow before the bodies of the victims of Israel's attack, this Saturday in Gaza. Photo: REUTERSIran and Hezbollah vowed to avenge the deaths of Ismail Haniyehwho was the political leader of Hamas before he was killed in Tehran on July 31 in an attack that Iranian authorities attribute to Israel; and Fuad Shukr, the Shiite group's military leader, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the outskirts of Beirut on July 30.
Iran calls Israeli attack 'genocide' and claimed that he completed preparations for Israel's “severe punishment”, ensuring that the Jewish state tried to boycott the Gaza ceasefire by killing Haniyeh and the civilians at the Al Tabain school.
The war broke out on October 7 last year after a Hamas' vicious attack on Israel which left about 1,200 dead and 251 kidnapped.
Since then, the Israeli military has attacked the entire Strip by air, land and sea, including areas considered “humanitarian” and civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, mosques, markets and refugee camps, claiming that militias operate from those places.
The more than 10 months of war have left more than 39,790 dead and 92,002 wounded in the Strip – most of them women and children – according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave's Health Ministry.
They are added to this 10 thousand disappeared under the rubble and 1.9 million displaced people surviving an unprecedented humanitarian crisis due to the widespread destruction of homes, collapsed hospitals, outbreaks of epidemics, the threat of starvation and shortages of potable water, food and medicine.