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SvennoJ 6 days ago
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Palestinians flee Israeli attacks on Jabalia refugee camp

Palestinians flee after an Israeli attack on a house near the school where they were sheltering, in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Sunday. Residents of northern Gaza have suffered heavy Israeli bombardment and forcible displacement orders.


Families were seen helping their elderly relatives and young children as they left the area

 

Palestinians in Gaza struggle to cope as heavy rains flood makeshift shelters

As we’ve been reporting, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has sounded the alarm as autumn arrives in Gaza, saying the plastic and fabric tents that displaced Palestinians are sheltering in are not enough to protect them against the rain and cold.

In Deir el-Balah, the first heavy rain of the season has flooded a tent camp, adding to the plight of hundreds of thousands of people sheltering there.




‘This is genocidal targeting’, say survivors of Israeli school attack

We’ve been covering a deadly Israeli attack on the Kafr Qasim School in the Shati refugee camp housing hundreds of displaced people in northern Gaza. Survivors of the attack, which killed at least seven people, said they did not know where to seek refuge.

“We got displaced and came to this school. I left from my house after it was targeted and my husband and my two children were killed. We came here thinking it was safe but then then they target us,” said Umm Mahmoud, a displaced Palestinian woman.

“Where are we supposed to go if at a school we are not safe? We got displaced seven or eight times, and I’m all alone with my two remaining children.”

Abu Mohammed Mahmoud said the Israelis were deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians. “These places are supposed to be classified safe by the Israelis, and safe places for people to stay in, but then suddenly, while we’re sitting, we found the whole school being destroyed from around us and the classes we are staying in are collapsing over our heads,” he said.

“As you can see, these classes got destroyed and it’s not like it was by mistake, no, this is genocidal targeting, aimed to destroy the people of Gaza,” he said, pointing to blown-out walls and ceilings at the school-turned-shelter.


Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people at the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, September 22


Most victims of Saturday’s school attack were women and children: Rights group

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said the overwhelming majority of the Palestinians who were killed in Israel’s attack on the Zeitoun school in Gaza City on Saturday were women and children.

It said 13 children and six women were among the 21 Palestinians killed in the assault. Health officials said earlier that 22 people had been killed.

Euro-Med, which sent a field and legal team to the site of the attack, said the victims included a woman who was three months pregnant. At least 30 others were wounded, including nine children who had to have their legs amputated.

As we’ve been reporting, Israel has struck two more schools-turned-shelters in Gaza since Saturday’s attack, killing at least 10 more Palestinians.

No sign of fighters, weapons at Gaza City school: Rights group

More from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor:

The group, which sent a field team to the Zeitoun school that Israeli forces bombed on Saturday, said its staff “did not witness any sign of armed personnel or equipment there”.

It added: “A review of the victims’ names revealed that they were all civilians, and were mostly women and children, which refutes the Israeli army’s claim that it had targeted a school being used as a military command and control centre by armed groups.”

At least 21 Palestinians were killed in the attack, including 13 children and six women, according to Euro-Med.

The group said Israel has bombed 21 schools-turned-shelters since August, killing at least 267 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more.

“The Israeli army is deliberately destroying the remaining shelter centres in the Gaza Strip, including schools and public facilities, with the aim of creating a coercive environment that forces civilians to evacuate their areas of residence towards the central and southern sections of the Strip,” it said.


Palestinians inspect a school, which was sheltering displaced people, after it was hit in an Israeli attack in Gaza City, September 21