Rights group finds no evidence of Hamas military presence at school massacre site
NOT SELF DEFENSE!
Palestinians search for victims following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a nonprofit group headquartered in Switzerland, has found no evidence of a Hamas military presence at a school where Palestinians were massacred by Israeli fighters.
"Preliminary reports indicate that the Israeli army detonated three U.S.-made bombs in the attack, which had a tremendous capacity to burn, melt, and destroy bodies," the Euro-Med Monitor said in a report.
Israel has claimed without evidence that the Tab'een School in Gaza City was used as a command center by the Palestinian resistance militia to justify its attack, which killed more than 100 sheltering civilians. It is just the latest attack on a school by the Israelis.
The Euro-Med Monitor team surveyed the school -- which was housing more than 2,500 displaced people in Gaza City -- and recorded the statements of survivors to determine that "there were no military gatherings or centers at the school, and it was never used for military objectives."
"Survivors testified that the school was providing shelter to hundreds of children whose families felt safe there," the rights group said.
It added that the narrow layout of the school and the lack of launch pads would make it a poor choice for a military installation.
The nonprofit noted that Israel specifically targeted a prayer hall, in violation of international humanitarian law. Young girls, including toddlers, were among the victims.
"We were sleeping. We woke up to the sound of an explosion and a fire. We left our classrooms to find a fire burning near the prayer hall. The Tab'een School's women's prayer hall is situated directly above the men's prayer hall," said Susan Mohammed Al-Barawi, a refugee who was sheltering at the school.
"Those who made it through were either severely burned or had their limbs amputated. I saw injured people with their intestines coming out."
Western nations including Germany and Britain have spread unfounded claims that Hamas was using the civilians in the school as "human shields." Israel has not been able to provide evidence of its human shield claims.
Palestinians search for victims following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a nonprofit group headquartered in Switzerland, has found no evidence of a Hamas military presence at a school where Palestinians were massacred by Israeli fighters.
"Preliminary reports indicate that the Israeli army detonated three U.S.-made bombs in the attack, which had a tremendous capacity to burn, melt, and destroy bodies," the Euro-Med Monitor said in a report.
Israel has claimed without evidence that the Tab'een School in Gaza City was used as a command center by the Palestinian resistance militia to justify its attack, which killed more than 100 sheltering civilians. It is just the latest attack on a school by the Israelis.
The Euro-Med Monitor team surveyed the school -- which was housing more than 2,500 displaced people in Gaza City -- and recorded the statements of survivors to determine that "there were no military gatherings or centers at the school, and it was never used for military objectives."
"Survivors testified that the school was providing shelter to hundreds of children whose families felt safe there," the rights group said.
It added that the narrow layout of the school and the lack of launch pads would make it a poor choice for a military installation.
The nonprofit noted that Israel specifically targeted a prayer hall, in violation of international humanitarian law. Young girls, including toddlers, were among the victims.
"We were sleeping. We woke up to the sound of an explosion and a fire. We left our classrooms to find a fire burning near the prayer hall. The Tab'een School's women's prayer hall is situated directly above the men's prayer hall," said Susan Mohammed Al-Barawi, a refugee who was sheltering at the school.
"Those who made it through were either severely burned or had their limbs amputated. I saw injured people with their intestines coming out."
Western nations including Germany and Britain have spread unfounded claims that Hamas was using the civilians in the school as "human shields." Israel has not been able to provide evidence of its human shield claims.
Hamas blasts Israel's 'false' narrative around school massacre
People sit near the bodies of a family members at the al-Maamadani hospital, following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 11 (UPI) -- After Israel killed more than 100 people sheltering inside a school in Gaza on Saturday, Hamas pushed back against what it called Israel's false narrative that the facility had been used as one of its command centers.
"The narrative of the criminal occupation army about the martyrs of the massacre in the Al-Tabin school in the Daraj neighborhood that they are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad is misleading and false," Hamas said in a statement.
Hamas said Israel killed civilians sheltering in the school and noted that Israel incorrectly listed 19 names claimed by the Israeli military to have been members of Palestinian militias.
The militia asserted that Israel made the false claim in a desperate bid "to justify its heinous crime in light of the widespread international criticism to it." Hamas added that those killed included children, university professors and clerics.
"We confirm that the aforementioned allegations of the occupation army are false and baseless," Hamas said. "No one among them was a gunman, and they were all civilians who were targeted while performing the dawn prayer."
Israel and its supporters have long lied or made false claims about Palestinians and Hamas amid an information war running parallel to the fighting in Gaza. In the 2008 conflict, Israel denied using white phosphorous in populated areas before evidence proved otherwise and it was forced to acknowledge using the controversial chemical warfare.
Other times, Israel makes accusations about the militia without providing concrete evidence to the public, making it hard to discern reality, such as in 2021 when it conducted a strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City used by international journalists that it said was used by Hamas, without providing evidence.
Hamas also hit out at British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, characterizing his comments about the school massacre as a "heinous alignment with the occupation's false narrative." Lammy had called on Palestinian fighters to "stop endangering civilians" without calling on Israeli fighters to do the same amid the conflict.
"It is a blatant attempt to evade his country's legal, political, and moral responsibility for the continuation of this brutal genocide, by continuing to provide political and military support to the Zionist occupation," Hamas added.
Hamas instead demanded that Britain and the United States "immediately back down" from making any statements or taking actions that would make them "actual partners in the war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide committed in the Gaza Strip."
People sit near the bodies of a family members at the al-Maamadani hospital, following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 11 (UPI) -- After Israel killed more than 100 people sheltering inside a school in Gaza on Saturday, Hamas pushed back against what it called Israel's false narrative that the facility had been used as one of its command centers.
"The narrative of the criminal occupation army about the martyrs of the massacre in the Al-Tabin school in the Daraj neighborhood that they are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad is misleading and false," Hamas said in a statement.
Hamas said Israel killed civilians sheltering in the school and noted that Israel incorrectly listed 19 names claimed by the Israeli military to have been members of Palestinian militias.
The militia asserted that Israel made the false claim in a desperate bid "to justify its heinous crime in light of the widespread international criticism to it." Hamas added that those killed included children, university professors and clerics.
"We confirm that the aforementioned allegations of the occupation army are false and baseless," Hamas said. "No one among them was a gunman, and they were all civilians who were targeted while performing the dawn prayer."
Israel and its supporters have long lied or made false claims about Palestinians and Hamas amid an information war running parallel to the fighting in Gaza. In the 2008 conflict, Israel denied using white phosphorous in populated areas before evidence proved otherwise and it was forced to acknowledge using the controversial chemical warfare.
Other times, Israel makes accusations about the militia without providing concrete evidence to the public, making it hard to discern reality, such as in 2021 when it conducted a strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City used by international journalists that it said was used by Hamas, without providing evidence.
Hamas also hit out at British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, characterizing his comments about the school massacre as a "heinous alignment with the occupation's false narrative." Lammy had called on Palestinian fighters to "stop endangering civilians" without calling on Israeli fighters to do the same amid the conflict.
"It is a blatant attempt to evade his country's legal, political, and moral responsibility for the continuation of this brutal genocide, by continuing to provide political and military support to the Zionist occupation," Hamas added.
Hamas instead demanded that Britain and the United States "immediately back down" from making any statements or taking actions that would make them "actual partners in the war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide committed in the Gaza Strip."
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