The Israeli army withdrew from Gaza City’s Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, destroying three schools and a health clinic [GETTY]
The Israeli army’s further destruction of schools and health centres in Gaza is an “additional manifestation of genocide”, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said.
Israel withdrew from Gaza City’s Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood after a week-long incursion on Wednesday, destroying the Ain Jalut, Atta Al-Shawa, and Hassan Al-Nakhalah schools and the Zaytoun Medical Clinic, which provided healthcare to the area’s 80,000 residents.
The Palestinian Civil Defence teams said ten bodies were recovered from the ruins.
Before the attack, Israeli forces broke through the clinic’s outer wall and left without giving an evacuation notice, according to Euro-Med, with the clinic bombed from the air two days later.
Safiya Rushdi Arhaim, 43, said she and the rest of the people displaced by the incursion felt relatively safe in the clinic, especially as Israeli soldiers did not order those seeking shelter inside to leave.
The army later sent messages to the clinic by phone but did not war of future violence with displaced families remaining inside the facility until the bombs fell, killing several families and injuring others.
Warplanes also struck the Al-Sabra clinic, run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), causing additional deaths and injuries. The clinic was housing 50 displaced people.
Eighty percent of schools in Gaza have either been partially or fully destroyed since 7 October, according to the United Nations, and over 200 have been targeted.
49 bodies found in third massive grave at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital https://t.co/ASygfUWLcS
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) May 8, 2024
The Israeli army has also turned hospitals and educational institutions into military bases and detention facilities as part of its military assault on the enclave, which Euro-med says is “in clear violation of international law and the conventions on war”.
The Salah al-Din Preparatory School in Gaza City was turned into a detention and investigation centre in February.
Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip has so far killed 35,303 Palestinian civilians, injuring 79,261 since 7 October.
