Doha, Qatar: Qatar has condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation’s renewed bombing of Al Fakhoora School in Jabalia Camp, north of Gaza, which led to the martyrdom of dozens, majority of them children and women.
Qatar considered it a horrific massacre, a brutal crime against defenceless civilians, and a blatant violation of the principles of international law and international humanitarian law.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs renewed Qatar’s demand for an urgent international investigation, which includes sending independent UN investigators to investigate the facts regarding the Israeli occupation forces’ continued targeting of schools and hospitals. It also called on the international community to take urgent action to hold Israel accountable.
The statement also called on the international community to take urgent action to deter Israel from committing more crimes against civilians, and provide necessary protection for the displaced people who are taking shelter in the school affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA).
The Ministry warned that the silence of the international community regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people will increase the state of tension, expand the cycle of violence, and lead to further escalation and instability. Meanwhile, Education Above All Foundation (EAA) has also unequivocally condemned the deliberate attacks on Al Fakhoora UNRWA school yesterday and the similarly devastating assault on the Al Falah school on November 17.
These reprehensible attacks have resulted in the tragic loss of dozens of lives of women, children, and displaced civilians, with many others injured and unaccounted for. EAA recognizes these atrocities as part of a distressing pattern of systematic and deliberate targeting of civilians and vital civilian infrastructure, said a statement.
Attacks on schools, designated shelters for displaced people, are serious violations of International Humanitarian Law, underscoring the gravity of targeting civilians as outlined in the Geneva Conventions. The EAA’s Al Fakhoora program, initiated in 2009, was established to honour the victims of a prior bombardment of Al Fakhoora school.
Throughout the ongoing assault on Gaza over the past 43 days from October 7, Palestinian children have not only been denied access to education but have also been subjected to indiscriminate aerial bombardment. This has led to the heartbreaking loss of 4,506 children, with many more lives still unaccounted for. Attacks on schools and the deliberate targeting of children constitute grave violations of international law and, if intentional, are considered war crimes, EAA said.
The Education Above All Foundation called on the global community to take collective action to end these flagrant violations. Such attacks on education and children must be thoroughly investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable. Schools must never be targeted during times of war. “We urgently call for an immediate halt to attacks on schools and stop the killing of innocent children and civilians,” EAA statement said.
