Israeli forces turn UN-run schools, shelter centres into settings for brutal crimes against civilians by Euro-med Human Rights Monitor

Geneva – The Israeli occupation continues to violate schools that have been converted into shelters for tens of thousands of displaced people, committing grave violations including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and intimidation of civilians, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued Sunday.

Euro-Med Monitor documented the Israeli forces’ raid on Al-Rafi’i School in the Gaza Strip’s Jabalia refugee camp, which houses thousands of displaced people, and the arrest of males as young as age 15. Israeli soldiers forced themales to strip down to their underwear and remain this way, then took them to an unknown location while forcefully displacing women amidst gunfire.

The rights organisation highlighted the Israeli forces’continued targeting of shelter centres, most of which wereestablished in schools managed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and bear the United Nations logo. These centres have been targeted since the early days of Israel’s genocidalwar on the Gaza Strip, which began on 7 October.

The Israeli military attacks have taken multiple forms, Euro-Med Monitor noted. Initially, shelter centres were repeatedly targeted by aerial bombardment, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the injury of hundreds more. This occurred on several occasions at Al-Fakhoura School and dozens of other schools in Gaza and its northern areas, as well as in Khan Yunis in the southern part of the Strip and Al-Bureij in the central area.