Israeli military “illegally and indiscriminately” using US ammunition to attack school shelters in Gaza, killing hundreds of people, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
The US-based campaign report, “Gaza: Israeli school strikes expand the dangers of civilians,” was published on Thursday.
Following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, Israeli campaigns have made the majority of Gaza’s 2.1 million people homeless.
Israel frequently mentions strikes at school facilities for targeted embedded Hamas fighter jets in Gaza. However, HRW has only found seven cases where the military has released details of suspected killings, highlighting two strikes that killed nearly 50 people and finding no evidence of military targets.
HRW said that such attacks violate international law as schools and other educational facilities are protected from attacks. They lose their protection when used for military purposes or occupied by the army. However, using schools to accommodate civilians does not change their legal status.
HRW called on the US and other governments to halt arms sales to Israel given the “clear risk” that they could commit or use weapons to promote “serious violations” of international humanitarian law. ” Washington’s supply of arms to Israel “conspired” with the United States in legal use, the group said.
“The Israeli strike at schools protecting evacuated families provides a window into the widespread massacres carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza,” Jerry Simpson, director of the Department of Subcrisis, Conflict, and Arms, said in the report.
“Other governments should not tolerate this horrific massacre of Palestinians simply seeking security,” Simpson added.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said it was “operated exclusively on the grounds of its military necessity and strict adherence to international law.”
“The report must emphasize that it blatantly ignores Hamas’ systematic patterns of illegally embedding military assets, including weapons and ammunition, in populated civilian regions,” the IDF added.
“Specifically, Hamas is well documented that by building a military network, Hamas uses schools and UNRWA facilities for military operations. They will build a military network within them, establish command and control centers within them, launch attacks on IDF forces, and imprison them hostages inside them.”
The military said “viable precautions” are needed to mitigate the harm to civilians as much as possible and “remorse the harm caused by civilians that are not involved.”
The attack on Israel’s Gaza school shelters killed at least 836 Palestinians as of July 18 and injured another 2,527, HRW reported, citing the UN office for the UN Humanitarian Agreement (OCHA).
HRW investigated two such attacks that identified US ammunition use. The agency said it reviewed satellite images, photos, videos and interviews with social media and witnesses from the attack and its aftermath.
CNN previously reported on US weapons use on a deadly strike and contacted the State Department to comment on the HRW report.
On July 27, 2024, Israeli forces began at least three strikes at Kadija Girls’ School in Deial Bala, central Gaza. At least 15 people have died.
Then, on September 21, Israel attacked the Arzeiton School in northern Gaza. At least 34 people have died.
“Can you imagine, did a building full of evacuated people get levelled in the blink of an eye?” said the journalist cited in the HRW report. “After seeing someone seriously and minor injuries, I saw a human body on the ground.”
The allegations cried in repeated human rights warnings that Israel’s 22-month bombing and siege had neutralised many of the enclaves.
HRW said attacks on school shelters reduced access to shelters, exacerbated the challenges of reconstruction and disrupt education among the prewar population of over 2.2 million.
At least 97% of Gaza schools have been affected, the UNICEF-led education cluster reported in August. Efforts to rebuild Gaza’s destroyed homes could be taken until 2040, the United Nations said in May. The level of destruction is so widespread that external support will be needed on a scale not seen after 1948, the agency added.
At least 61,158 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, where the Ministry of Health reported Wednesday. At least 193 people, including 96 children, died of starvation, the ministry added.
A Palestinian student told CNN that the day he went to university was replaced by repeated displacements and a brutal struggle for serious hunger.
“The war came and destroyed everything,” 20-year-old Ragad Ezzat Hamoudha told CNN on Wednesday.
“I have lost my ambition and dreams,” Hamouda added. Hamouda is evacuated to nine families in Tar Al Hawa in central Gaza. “Gaza is no longer inhabitable. (There’s no home, no school, no university, no infrastructure… just ashes.”
