The US-based campaigners’ report, “Gaza: Israeli School
Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril,” was published Thursday.
Israel’s campaign following the Hamas-led attacks of October
07, 2023 has made the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.1 million people homeless –
forcing many to flee their neighborhoods in search of civilian infrastructure.
Israel has frequently said its strikes on school facilities
in Gaza target embedded Hamas fighters. But HRW said it only found seven
instances where the military published details of alleged militants killed –
and highlighted two strikes, which killed nearly 50 people, where they found no
evidence of any military target.
Such attacks would violate international law because schools
and other educational facilities are civilian objects and protected from
attack, HRW said. They lose that protection when used for military purposes or
are occupied by military forces. But the use of schools to house civilians does
not alter their legal status.
HRW
called on the US and other governments to halt arms sales to Israel, given the
“clear risk” that weapons might be used to commit or facilitate “serious
violations” of international humanitarian law.” Washington’s supply of arms to
Israel has made the US “complicit” in their lawful use, the group said.
“Israeli strikes on schools sheltering displaced families
provide a window into the widespread carnage that Israeli forces have carried
out in Gaza,” Gerry Simpson, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at
HRW, said in the report. “Other governments should not tolerate this horrendous
slaughter of Palestinians merely seeking safety,” added Simpson.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “operates
exclusively on the grounds of military necessity and in strict accordance with
international law.”
“It must be emphasized that the report blatantly ignores
Hamas’ systematic pattern of unlawfully embedding its’ military assets,
including weapons and ammunition in, beneath, and in proximity to densely
populated civilian areas, and cynically exploits civilian infrastructure for terror
purposes,” the IDF added.
“Specifically, it has been well documented that Hamas
exploits schools and UNRWA facilities for its military activities by building
military networks beneath and within schools; establishing command-and-control
centers within them, launching attacks toward IDF forces from them, and imprisoning
hostages in them.”
The military said it takes “feasible precautions” to
mitigate harm to civilians as much as possible and “regrets any harm caused to
uninvolved civilians.”
Israeli
attacks on school shelters in Gaza have killed at least 836 Palestinians and
injured another 2,527 people, as of July 18, HRW reported, citing the UN’s
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
HRW investigated two such attacks where it identified the
use of US munitions. The agency said it reviewed satellite imagery, photos, and
videos of the attacks and their aftermath, as well as social media and
interviews with eyewitnesses.
CNN has previously reported on the use of US weaponry in
deadly strikes and has reached out to the State Department for comment on the
HRW report.
On July 27, 2024, the Israeli military launched at least
three strikes on the Khadija girls’ school in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza. At
least 15 people were killed.
Then on September 21, Israel struck Al-Zeitoun school,
northern Gaza. At least 34 people were killed.
“Can
you imagine, a building full of displaced people leveled in the blink of an
eye?” a journalist cited in the HRW report said. “I saw people with serious and
more minor injuries, and then saw human remains on the ground.”
The allegations chimed with repeated human rights warnings
that Israel’s 22-month bombing and siege has rendered much of the enclave
uninhabitable.
HRW said
attacks on school shelters have diminished access to refuge, exacerbated
reconstruction challenges, and disrupted education among a pre-war population
of more than 2.2 million people – where half of those are under the age of 18.
At least 97% of schools in Gaza have sustained damage, the
UNICEF-led Education Cluster reported in August. Efforts to rebuild destroyed
homes in Gaza could take until 2040, the UN said in May. The level of
destruction is so extensive that it would require external assistance on a
scale not seen since 1948, the agency added.
At
least 61,158 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the Ministry of Health
there reported on Wednesday. At least 193 people have starved to death,
including 96 children, the ministry added.
One Palestinian student told CNN that days spent going to
university have been replaced by a brutal struggle for survival repeated displacement,
and severe hunger.
“The war came and destroyed everything,” Raghad Ezzat Hamouda,
20, told CNN on Wednesday.
“I lost my ambitions and dreams,” added Hamouda, who is
displaced with nine family members in Tal Al-Hawa, central Gaza. “Gaza has
become uninhabitable. (There are) no homes, no schools, no universities, no
infrastructure... Just ashes.”
