We strongly condemn the devastating Israeli military airstrikes on the Tabeen school in central Gaza City, where around 6000 displaced people were sheltering. Between 80 and 100 people were killed in this horrific attack, according to reports, and many more were injured, among them children.
This latest attack is the seventh on schools-turned-shelters in Gaza since the start of the month alone and could amount to a grave violation of international humanitarian law. These shelters should be safe havens for the thousands of displaced people trapped in Gaza who have nowhere else to go, but as this shocking attack yet again proves, nowhere in Gaza is safe.
Hala, an ActionAid staff member based in Gaza, said:
“Yet another brutal attack on a school has seen dozens killed and hundreds of people left grieving and traumatized. We cannot let this kind of atrocity become normalized. The world must not become numb to the horror that we in Gaza are having to live through every single day – this nightmare has to end.”
ActionAid is calling for a permanent and immediate ceasefire, and urges states to do everything in their power to bring about an end to the crisis – including banning arms sales to the Israeli government and imposing sanctions on senior Israeli officials linked to alleged violations of international humanitarian law, such as travel bans and asset freezes. There can be no more delay.
ENDS
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About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.