Image Source: Brookings Institutions
Occupied Gaza Strip – Human Rights Watch reports that Israeli forces are using U.S.-supplied munitions to kill Palestinians sheltering in schools across Gaza. These schools, intended as safe havens for displaced civilians, have become repeated targets in Israeli airstrikes.
The organisation says hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed by these Israeli attacks since October 2023, with nearly all of Gaza’s schools now damaged or destroyed.
Human Rights Watch confirms that many of these strikes were unlawfully indiscriminate and involved U.S. weapons, including GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs.
“Israeli forces’ deadly attacks on schools sheltering Palestinian civilians highlight the absence of safe places for Gaza’s displaced people,” Human Rights Watch said.
The report urges governments to stop enabling the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. It says countries that supply weapons used in these attacks, particularly the United States, should suspend all transfers and act urgently under international law.
“Israeli strikes on schools sheltering displaced families provide a window into the widespread carnage that Israeli forces have carried out in Gaza,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch.
Israel Killed Palestinian Civilians Sheltering in Schools
Human Rights Watch investigated two major incidents where Israeli forces bombed schools used as shelters: Khadija girls’ school in Deir al-Balah on 27 July 2024, and al-Zeitoun C school in Gaza City on 21 September 2024.
In both cases, no military targets were identified. The strikes killed at least 49 Palestinians, including children, women, and the elderly.
At Khadija school, U.S.-made bombs were dropped on a facility sheltering roughly 4,000 displaced Palestinians, including a field hospital.
“When we arrived, I saw a horrific scene,” said a journalist at the site. “I saw injured women, children, the elderly and some doctors in their medical clothes. Women were shouting, ‘Where are my children?’ or ‘My son, I want my son.’”
At al-Zeitoun C school, the Israeli airstrike killed at least 34 Palestinians, most of them children. The school was sheltering widows, orphans and displaced families who had nowhere else to go.
“What have we done as children? We wake up and go to sleep, terrified. At least protect the schools; we don’t have schools or homes – where do we go?” a girl who survived the bombing told the BBC.
Human Rights Watch is calling for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and for governments to enforce the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
