DayofPal– The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a new report on Monday that the Israeli army has attacked shelters hosting displaced people in the Gaza Strip 39 times so far in October.
Since early August 2024, Israeli forces have intensified their military campaign in Gaza, launching attacks aimed at forcibly displacing the Palestinian population. Tragically, these assaults have claimed the lives of 188 people and left hundreds injured.
In a shocking escalation, schools, hospitals, clinics, and shelters have been struck 65 times, with 39 of those incidents occurring just this October. According to the Euro-Med Monitor’s field team, these attacks have resulted in the deaths of 672 Palestinians and injuries to over 1,000 others.
The majority of the targeted sites—57—were concentrated in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, while the remaining eight were located in the central region, underscoring the widespread devastation faced by the community.
The Israeli army’s operations have involved relentless shelling and targeted shootings, resulting in the deaths of forcibly displaced people and their families. Many have been forced to flee schools that have been converted into makeshift shelters, often under gunfire or evacuation orders.
Tragically, these schools are subsequently set ablaze or deliberately destroyed, making it impossible for displaced families to return.
Euro-Med Monitor noted that Israel’s “systematic policy” of destroying shelters restricts the options available to residents in terms of places to seek refuge, which helps Israel “achieve its objectives of destroying and forcibly displacing Palestinians and altering the demographic makeup of the Strip.”
This situation is especially evident in northern Gaza, where Israeli officials have openly expressed intentions to annex and settle the area.
The targeting of shelters has triggered multiple waves of forced displacement, scattering numerous Palestinian families and tearing them apart, which has compounded their suffering, particularly for children, who are enduring an intensified psychological toll from the chaos and separation.
On the afternoon of Sunday 27 October, the Israeli military bombed the Asmaa School in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. The school-turned-shelter was home to thousands of displaced people, and the bombing killed 11 Palestinians—including four journalists, two of whom were women—and injured dozens more.
The Israeli air force had bombed the same school eight days prior, killing eight Palestinians and injuring others.
Also, the Shuhada Al-Nuseirat Secondary School for Boys was targeted by Israeli air force earlier on Tuesday 24 October. This school was home to thousands of displaced people in the central Gaza Strip’s Nuseirat refugee camp, and the bombing killed 18 Palestinians, including 12 children and three women, and injured 52 more.
According to a review by the Euro-Med Monitor field team, none of the victims—which include 54-year-old professor Ashraf Yaqoub Al-Jidi, Dean of the Islamic University of Gaza’s Faculty of Nursing—were fighters.
At least 10 schools in northern Gaza are currently being evacuated by the Israeli occupation forces, which is also setting the majority of them on fire, the group said.
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