The Cradle / July 7, 2024
Israel’s bombing of a UNRWA school full of sheltering civilians on Saturday was the 43rd massacre in the Nuseirat camp since the start of the war.
Palestinian resistance factions have condemned Israel’s latest massacre of women and children sheltering at a UNRWA school in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, noting it is the 43rd massacre in the camp since the start of the war.
Israeli forces bombed the school on Saturday, killing 16 and injuring 50 others, among them children.
“The brutal shelling carried out by the terrorist occupation army on the al-Jaouni school, run by UNRWA (UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees) and housing thousands of civilian refugees, is a massacre and a new crime committed by this criminal enemy, as part of the ongoing genocide it is waging against our Palestinian people in Gaza,” the Hamas movement said in a statement.
Hamas demanded that the international community and the UN “take immediate action to stop these violations and ongoing war crimes, and to take effective measures to prevent the Zionist killing machine from continuing its crimes against our defenseless people in Gaza.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also condemned the Israeli massacre. The movement stated, “The defeated Zionist enemy targets safe displaced persons and innocent children, trying, by all means, to compensate for its losses incurred by the resistance by bombing innocent civilians. These actions reflect its cowardice and despair in the face of the heroic strikes by the resistance.”
According to the Gaza Government Media office, Israel has carried out 43 massacres in the Nuseirat camp alone since the beginning of the onslaught against the enclave on 7 October.
This includes targeting 17 schools and shelters for displaced people within the camp.
Palestinians use schools as shelters after Israel bombs and destroys their homes and residential areas.
A month earlier, on 8 June, Israel massacred 274 Palestinians in Nuseirat camp as part of a broader operation by Yamam commando units to rescue four Israelis held captive by Hamas.
Witnesses reported a “crazy bombardment” which occurred as residents in the camp were sleeping. Israeli forces fired some 150 rockets at the areas near the marketplace of the camp in less than 10 minutes, destroying entire residential apartment buildings.
A camp resident, Abu Abdallah, told CNN, “Dogs were eating people’s remains. We pulled out six martyrs, all torn up children and women, we risked our lives to get them to the hospital.”
On 16 March, an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat massacred 36 members of the same family gathered in their home to break the daily Ramadan fast.
Mohammed al-Tabatibi, 19, showed correspondents from AFP where the bodies of his relatives were spread out at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah.
“This is my mother, this is my father, this is my aunt, and these are my brothers,” Tabatibi stated in tears.
“They bombed the house while we were in it. My mother and my aunt were preparing the suhoor food. They were all martyred,” he explained before the bodies were stacked on a truck to be driven to a cemetery.
AFP added that because there were not enough body bags, some of the dead – including at least two children – were wrapped in white cloth stained with blood.
On 20 October, Israel bombed the al-Aydi family home in Nuseirat, killing 28 civilians, including 12 children. The house was located in the area where the Israeli military had ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate.
Amnesty International reported that Rami al-Aydi, his wife Ranin, and their three children – Ghina, ten, Maya, eight, and Iyad, six – were killed. Zeina Abu Shehada and her two children, Amir al-Aydi, four, and Rakan al-Aydi, three, were also killed, along with Zeina’s mother and two sisters.
Hani al-Aydi, who survived the attack, told Amnesty, “We were sitting at home, it was full of people, of children, of relatives. Suddenly, without any warning, everything collapsed on our heads. All my brothers died, my nephews, my nieces … My mother died, my sisters died, our home is gone … There is nothing here, and now we are left with nothing and are displaced. I don’t know how much worse things will get. Could it get any worse?”
Hazem Abu Shehada’s wife and three daughters were among the victims. They had moved from the nearby Al-Maghazi refugee camp, looking for safety.
He told Amnesty, “I will live with that guilt for the rest of my life. It was I who suggested they move there temporarily. I wish I did not do that. I wish I could turn the clock back. I’d rather we all died together than losing my family.”
