TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / July 8, 2024
UNRWA’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, has reiterated the agency’s call for an independent investigation into attacks on UN premises in the besieged Gaza Strip.
This follows the Israeli attack on the UNRWA-affiliated Al-Jaouni School which killed at least 16 Palestinians and injured 50 more.
The school “was home to nearly 2,000 internally displaced, dozens of casualties were reported,” Lazzarni, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, said on X on Sunday.
“Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” Lazzarini stated.
Multiple hits
Since the war began nine months ago, “more than half (or 190) of UNRWA facilities have been hit, some multiple times, some directly,” he stressed. “As a result, 520 people were killed and nearly 1,600 were injured while seeking some safety. Too many were women and children.”
He emphasized that a “re-occurring claim (among others) from Israel is that our facilities are being used by Palestinian armed groups.” Lazzarini said that he repeatedly asked for an investigation.
Israeli army admission
Last month, UNRWA’s communications director, Juliette Touma, said in a statement to The Washington Post that scores of UNRWA buildings, mostly schools that were turned into shelters, have been attacked since October 7. More than 450 people have been killed in those attacks.
“We call for investigations into all violations against the United Nations including attacks on our buildings,” Touma said at the time.
Her statement followed an attack on a school turned shelter that was bombed in Nuseirat in central Gaza, killing at least 35 people and injuring scores.
The Israeli army admitted to carrying out the attack, claiming that its warplanes bombed a compound used by Hamas inside a school belonging to UNRWA.
‘No accountability’
Lazzarini said, “The school was sheltering 6,000 displaced people when it was hit.”
He stressed that attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes was “a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law,” and added that UN staff, premises and operations “must be protected at all times”.
“No one is being held accountable. It is time for independent investigations + accountability,” he said on X at the time. “In parallel, the disinformation war continues to rage including against UNRWA. This puts the lives of my own colleagues in Gaza and elsewhere at risk.”
Lazzarini called “once again” for a ceasefire after “nine months of this brutal war.”
Staggering death toll
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 38,098 Palestinians have been killed, and 87,705 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
