EU diplomat chief calls for independent investigation into Israeli attack on school in Gaza
The head of European Union (EU) diplomacy, Josep Borrell, defended this Thursday an independent investigation into the Israeli attack on a school run by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the center of Gaza.
“Information coming from Gaza repeatedly shows that violence and suffering continue to be the only reality for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians”, stressed Borrell, on the social network X.
The Spanish diplomat added that the “terrible news must be investigated independently, in accordance with the latest order of the International Court of Justice.”
“A lasting ceasefire is the only way to protect civilians and achieve the immediate release of all hostages. Both sides must now agree on the United States’ three-phase plan,” added the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The Israeli Army confirmed the bombing of the school this Wednesday night and argued that it was home to “Hamas terrorists”, including members of the forces of the Palestinian Islamist group who carried out the attacks on Israeli territory in October 7, 2023.
Israeli forces later released the names of nine senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials who were allegedly killed in Wednesday night’s attack.
“Some of these terrorists participated in the October 7th attack and were planning imminent attacks from that UNRWA school,” said Daniel Hagari, the main spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), during in a videoconference.
Daniel Hagari insisted that the attack was directed only “against three rooms” of this school, where, he reported, between 20 and 30 militiamen were hiding.
These elements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad used the complex as a “forward operating base to launch attacks against Israeli forces”.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, located in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, an enclave controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, reviewed this Thursday night the number of women and children among the killed in the attack, pointing to three women, nine children and 21 men, reported the Associated Press (AP).
Previously, it had been said that nine women and 14 children were among the 33 people killed in the attack.
UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini lamented this Thursday, through the social network X, that the Israeli attack on the school in Nuiserat occurred “without prior warning”.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip eight months ago, more than 180 UNRWA buildings, mostly schools converted into shelters, have been attacked.
“The result was the death of more than 450 displaced people in these facilities,” the organization revealed in a statement.
The ongoing war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by an attack by the Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil, on October 7, 2023, which caused around 1,200 deaths and left more than two hundred hostages held by the Palestinian group, according to Tel Aviv.
The Israeli offensive that followed in the Gaza Strip caused more than 36,000 deaths and a serious humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, according to local authorities supervised by Hamas, which has controlled the territory since 2007.
