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'Shocking': UNRWA Chief Decries Israel's Destruction of Agency Headquarters
"Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law," said the commissioner-general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees expressed horror Monday over Israeli forces' destruction of the key aid organization's headquarters in Gaza City, which Israel's military recently attacked and left in ruins.
"Shocking," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), wrote in a social media post, which included photos of the bombed-out headquarters complex.
"UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, turned into a battlefield and now flattened," Lazzarini continued. "Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law. United Nations facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting purposes. Every war has rules. Gaza is no exception."
Shocking. @UNRWA headquarters in #Gaza, turned into a battlefield & now flattened 👇
Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law.
United Nations facilities must be protected at all times. They must never be used for military or fighting… pic.twitter.com/XVOm5UjJeM
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 15, 2024
Photos of UNRWA's destroyed headquarters emerged following a deadly weekend of Israeli bombings across the Gaza Strip that were overshadowed in the media by the attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday.
More than 140 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded on Saturday and Sunday, including in Israeli airstrikes on a so-called "safe zone" in southern Gaza.
Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA's head of external relations, told Al Jazeera on Monday that "the last week has been one of the deadliest weeks in Gaza since the war started."
"The images coming out of the UNRWA headquarters are really shocking," said Alrifai. "What I saw today in the footage is unrecognizable."
While U.S. media blacked out coverage for Palestine: "The headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has been destroyed."
"The last week has been the worst violence since the war started," said Tamara al-Rafai, Head of External Relations. https://t.co/Jh228UYexc pic.twitter.com/jVHcqIpd2e
— HalalFlow (@halalflow) July 15, 2024
UNRWA and its infrastructure in Gaza, including schools, have been major targets of Israel's far-right government since its latest assault on the Palestinian enclave began in October following a deadly Hamas-led attack. Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed—without providing evidence—that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations.
Nearly 200 UNRWA facilities in Gaza, most of which have been serving as shelters for displaced people, have been damaged during Israel's war on the besieged territory, Alrifai noted Monday. Around 500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on UNRWA facilities, according to Alrifai.
"It speaks volumes to the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law," she said.
Israel's aerial and ground attacks on Gaza continued Monday as much of the territory's population is facing catastrophic levels of hunger. Since the start of the assault, Israel has dramatically restricted the flow of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, depriving Palestinians of food, medicine, clean water, and other basic necessities.
Reutersreported that Israel "struck the southern and central Gaza Strip" on Monday and "blew up several homes."
"Medical officials said they recovered 10 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in eastern areas of the city, some of which had already begun to decompose," the news agency added. "The military also stepped up aerial and tank shelling in central Gaza in the al-Bureij and al-Maghazi historic refugee camps. Health officials said five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in Maghazi camp."
World 'Cannot Remain Silent in the Face of This Endless Massacre,' Says Lula
"The Israeli government continues to sabotage the peace process and the cease-fire in the Middle East," said the Brazilian president after a deadly weekend of bombings.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned the Israeli government on Sunday after bombings across the Gaza Strip killed more than 140 people and wounded hundreds more, adding to the gruesome death toll and worsening the enclave's humanitarian emergency as cease-fire talks continue.
Lula specifically decried Israel's Saturday attack on al-Mawasi, an overcrowded town on Gaza's southern coast to which Israeli forces previously ordered Palestinians to flee. Israel claimed to be targeting Hamas' military chief in the attack; Hamas said Sunday that the commander was not harmed in the strikes, which killed around 90 people—including children.
The New York Timesreported that one of the Israeli strikes "exploded directly in front of two vehicles clearly marked as belonging to Gaza Civil Defense, an emergency services agency, spraying them with shrapnel and apparently killing and injuring first responders."
Lula said Sunday that "the Israeli government continues to sabotage the peace process and the cease-fire [negotiations] in the Middle East" with its relentless bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has been utterly decimated by Israel's assault—a military campaign fueled by billions of dollars of weaponry from the United States, Germany, and other major countries.
"It is appalling that they continue to collectively punish the Palestinian people," Brazil's president said. "There have already been tens of thousands of deaths in consecutive attacks since last year, many of them in delimited humanitarian zones that should be protected."
"We, the political leaders of the democratic world, cannot remain silent in the face of this endless massacre," he added. "The cease-fire and peace in the region need to be priorities on the international agenda. All our efforts must be focused on securing the release of the Israeli hostages and ending the attacks on the Gaza Strip."
Brazil under Lula's leadership has backed the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and been a vocal supporter of a permanent cease-fire and an end to Israel's decadeslong occupation of Palestinian territory.
"I saw toddlers who are double amputees, children paralyzed and unable to receive treatment, and others separated from their parents."
Israel's weekend onslaught in Gaza came as "Hamas and Israel appear closer to some form of a Gaza cease-fire deal than at any time since the brief truce last November," as Drop Site's Jeremy Scahill put it late last week.
"Hamas is considering an approach that would not immediately require a commitment to a permanent cease-fire and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as a precondition to move forward in phased negotiations," Scahill reported. "This would mark a significant concession by Hamas, which has long insisted any agreement must include defined steps that end Israel's war. Instead, Hamas officials said, they would consider entering an initial six-week phase that would include a conditional cease-fire and an exchange of Israeli civilian and female soldiers held in Gaza in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinians."
The Associated Pressreported Sunday that Hamas—which led the deadly October 7 attack on Israel—intends to keep participating in cease-fire talks in the face of incessant Israeli airstrikes, though a spokesperson for the group said there is "no doubt that the horrific massacres will impact any efforts in the negotiations."
Scott Anderson, the United Nations' deputy humanitarian coordinator, described the appalling scene he witnessed over the weekend at Nasser Hospital, the overwhelmed medical facility in southern Gaza where many wounded Palestinians were taken following Israel's Saturday attack on al-Mawasi.
"With not enough beds, hygiene equipment, sheeting, or scrubs, many patients were treated on the ground without disinfectants," said Anderson. "Ventilation systems were switched off due to a lack of electricity and fuel, and the air was filled with the smell of blood. I saw toddlers who are double amputees, children paralyzed and unable to receive treatment, and others separated from their parents. I also saw mothers and fathers who were unsure if their children were alive. Parents told me in despair that they had moved into the 'so-called humanitarian zone' in the hope that their children would be safe there."
"Impediments to humanitarian operations prevent us from supporting people anywhere near the scale necessary," Anderson continued. "Civilians must be protected at all times. We urgently need a cease-fire, the release of all remaining hostages, respite for the people of Gaza, and a meaningful opportunity for healing to begin."
Israel Bombs the Beautiful Game—and So Much More—in Gaza
As the Olympic Torch arrives in Paris later this month to open the Summer Games, let’s remember the flames outside the soccer pitch at the Al-Awda School in Khan Younis
Israel struck just outside a school in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least 29 people sheltering there and injuring dozens more. The moment the bomb exploded was captured on video by someone recording a youth soccer game in the Al-Awda school courtyard. The soccer ball was midair when the bomb exploded. The New York Times, using Reuters footage, identified the munition as a 250-pound GBU-39 guided bomb, manufactured by Boeing and supplied by the United States. The video, broadcast by Al Jazeera, captured the chaos following the explosion and the carnage outside the school, with dead bodies and injured people bleeding on the ground, unattended amidst the rubble.
Attack survivor Asmaa Qudeih recounted the horror:
“We were sitting safely in the afternoon, somewhat settled. Suddenly, a missile was fired…The schools were overcrowded with people, and the street was full, too. Suddenly, a missile hit and destroyed the whole place. There were bodies and body parts. Bodies flew. Body parts flew in the air. I don’t know how to describe it. I can’t.”
In addition to those at the soccer game, many others were reportedly clustered around a wifi hotspot, accessing the internet. Seeking connection to the outside world while trapped in the besieged ghetto of Gaza, they were annihilated.
The Al-Awda school massacre, as it has become known, occurred as Israel’s assault on Gaza enters its tenth month, and almost ten years to the day since four young boys in Gaza were killed by an Israeli bomb while they played soccer on the beach, on July 16th, 2014.
Tyler Hicks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist with the New York Times, witnessed that attack. He described it, speaking on the Democracy Now! news hour:
My hotel room overlooks the beach…I heard a loud explosion, a big crack right outside the window. I immediately looked outside…I could just see one child running away from that into the open sand. I knew that there was a strong possibility that there would be injuries or even deaths because of this, and I quickly started to grab my cameras, my protective flak jacket, when another second explosion happened outside about 30 seconds after the first one. When I looked back out, that very boy that I had seen running was then lifeless, killed on the beach in the open, and along with three other boys who were playing with him.
Ayman Mohyeldin, today an MSNBC anchor, also witnessed the killing of the boys. He said he had been kicking a soccer ball with them just moments before. NBC responded to Ayman’s compelling reporting on the attack by pulling him out of Gaza.
Panic as Israeli strike hits near Gaza school playgroundwww.youtube.com
In May, Gaza native Badr Alzaharna published an essay on the website of The International Platform on Sport and Development, about the importance in Gaza of soccer, or football as it is known everywhere outside the United States.
“For Gaza’s young and old, football is more than just a game. It has long been a beacon of unity, peace, and hope for thousands of people in Gaza, transcending the protracted struggles we face. Just like fans around the world, we are dedicated followers of the most ‘beautiful game,’ cheering on our favorite teams and players,” Badr wrote.
He invoked the phrase “The Beautiful Game,” popularized by the late, great Brazilian soccer legend, Pelé,
“Playing football was not merely a pastime, but a lifeline for thousands of youth, providing solace amidst chaos, friendships in loneliness, relief in the face of anxiety, and always a goal to look forward to…Football was an interlude to the pain, a brief distraction from the sounds of bombardment stuck in our heads from previous wars.”
Half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians is under the age of 18. Those born in 2006 or after have lived their entire lives under Israel’s brutal siege of Gaza, described as the worlds’ largest open-air prison.
While the World Court deliberates on South Africa’s charge that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza, those million or so children trapped under Israel’s constant bombardment need food, water, education, and, yes, the recreation and community afforded by activities like soccer. Most of them have known only scarcity, occupation and war throughout their short lives.
This week, as Gaza ceasefire talks drag on in Doha, Qatar, Israel ordered the complete evacuation of Gaza City, which Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem called “absolute madness,” adding, “based on Israel’s actions, it appears that it intends to continue fighting indefinitely, sowing destruction, and killing masses of people for the foreseeable future.”
As the finals for both the COPA America and Euro Cup finals take place today, let’s remember the flames outside the soccer pitch at the Al-Awda School in Khan Younis, and the children playing the Beautiful Game in Gaza, amidst the ugliness of war.