Genocidal allies: Israeli bombing of Gaza City school and additional 3.5bn US military aid

By Alireza Akbari

Israeli bombing of a school repurposed as a shelter house for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City coincided with the US announcement of a new $3.5 billion military package for Tel Aviv.

The bombing left more than 100 Palestinians dead, including children and women. To establish the direct US complicity, a media report referred to the use of US-made GBU-39 bombs in the carnage.

The early morning assault on a school in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City drew anger and outrage across the world but the US government and its allies unsurprisingly looked away.

It was the latest attack on educational facilities in the besieged Palestinian territory, each serving as a makeshift refuge, as documented by the UN Human Rights Office since July 4.

According to local media, the al-Tabi’in school was struck by occupation warplanes while hundreds of people, including children, were performing pre-dawn prayers.

The government media office in Gaza and resistance groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, strongly condemned the attack, one of the deadliest since October 7, 2023.

Israeli occupation army claimed that the school was being used as a hideout by Hamas fighters and commanders, without offering any evidence. Even Western media failed to manufacture consent for it this time despite making desperate efforts.

Euro-Med Monitor, a Geneva-based human rights group in its report on Sunday exposed the lies and proved that 19 people who claimed to be Hamas operatives were indeed Palestinian civilians.

Similarly, unsubstantiated claims were peddled in the past as well to cover up Israeli war crimes against Palestinians sheltering inside hospitals, schools and refugee camps.

According to experts, what makes these attacks not only possible but easy is the overt military support provided to the Tel Aviv regime by the United States, with the last package announced on the same day when more than 100 Palestinians were massacred, their bodies put inside plastic bags.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said the Biden administration had formally notified Congress of its decision on Thursday, indicating its intent to release billions in aid to Israel.

The new military aid coincided with US calls for a ceasefire in the blockaded territory where the death toll from the genocidal war has now reached close to 40,000, most of them children and women.

In a joint statement issued with Egypt and Qatar, the US asserted that "only the details" remain to be finalized in the pursuit of a ceasefire, while creating hurdles by aiding the Israeli massacres in Gaza.

In the immediate aftermath of the Israeli assault on the school, the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said the Israeli regime was perpetrating genocide against the beleaguered population of Gaza using “US and European weapons.”

The UN Human Rights Office stated that the Israeli attack on the school in Gaza City was executed with "apparent disregard for the high rate of civilian fatalities,” with reports indicating that these strikes resulted in at least 274 deaths, including numerous women and children.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement condemned the brutal strike, saying it points to Tel Aviv's relentless campaign of genocide against the coastal territory and its systematic policy of mass killings.

Hezbollah described Israeli claims of ceasefire negotiations as nothing but “treachery and deceit.”

Hamas deputy chief Khalil al-Hayya called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in the wake of the barbaric school attack in the al-Daraj neighborhood.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian also expressed strong condemnation, asserting that the attack reveals the Zionist regime's true and brutal nature.

Algeria has requested an urgent and open session of the UN Security Council for Tuesday to discuss the attack, which the UN reports is at least the 21st such incident in the past 40 days.

Over 40 percent of schools in Gaza, totaling 288, are operated by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), while the remainder are managed by the Palestinian Authority or private entities.

As reported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on October 27, 2023, there were over 625,000 students and more than 22,500 teachers in Gaza.

However, the Palestinian Ministry of Education indicates that up to 280 government schools and 65 UNRWA-run schools have already been destroyed or damaged due to the genocidal Israeli attacks.

A recent report by The Guardian cited UN findings that as of May, 80 percent of schools in the besieged strip had been either destroyed or damaged, describing the condition as “scholasticide.”

In the first 100 days of the Gaza genocidal war, all 12 universities in Gaza were targeted with bombs, leading to either total or partial destruction.

By April 2024, data from UN experts and the Palestinian Ministry of Education indicated that Israeli military aggression had resulted in the martyrdom of at least 5,479 students, 261 teachers, and 95 university professors, along with other educational staff, causing approximately 90,000 Palestinian university students to have their studies suspended.

In the past month alone, attacks on at least 17 schools reportedly claimed 163 lives, including women and children, revealing utter disregard of the settler-colonial entity for the vulnerable section of society.

On July 27, both Khadija School and the nearby Ahmad Al Kurd School in Deir al Balah were struck, resulting in the deaths of at least 30 Palestinians, including 15 children and 8 women.

On August 1, Dalal Moghrabi Public School in the Ash Shujaiyeh neighborhood of eastern Gaza City was hit, claiming 15 lives, among them children.

More attacks occurred on August 3, when Hamama School and the Huda School in Shake Radwan were targeted, with reports pointing to at least 16 fatalities, including women and children.

The assaults continued on August 4, when Hassan Salame and Nasser Schools in the An Nassr area of western Gaza City were attacked almost simultaneously, leading to reports of at least 25 fatalities.

The UN Human Rights Office has documented another 10 attacks on schools across the territory in the last four weeks.

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