A deadly Israeli attack on a school in Gaza has renewed calls for the United States to end its unwavering support for Israel, including arms transfers that human rights advocates say fuel atrocities in the Palestinian enclave.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said more than 100 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Saturday when Israel launched an attack on al-Tabin school in Gaza City.
“The United States and its allies claim that a ceasefire is near. But all Palestinians see is more death, displacement, and despair. The genocide continues,” James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, wrote on social media.
“It is time to put an end to this charade. Israel wants neither peace nor a ceasefire. Why do we continue to send weapons to Israel?”
On Saturday morning, CNN reporter Allegra Goodwin said in a message on X that the American news network had confirmed that a “US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bomb” was used in the deadly Israeli attack on the al-Tabin school. Tel Aviv Tribune could not immediately verify the report.
The attack comes as US President Joe Biden has been under public pressure for months to cut off weapons supplies to Israel as part of its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 39,700 Palestinians since early October.
Israel receives at least $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid annually, and Biden approved an additional $14 billion in aid to the U.S. ally earlier this year.
Human rights groups have also documented Israel’s use of U.S.-made weapons “in serious violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner inconsistent with U.S. law and policy” during the war.
But a U.S. State Department spokesman said Friday that Washington would send an additional $3.5 billion to Israel to buy U.S.-made weapons and military equipment.
“Torn to pieces”
The attack on the Gaza City school, which was sheltering thousands of displaced people, also comes amid renewed pressure from the United States, Qatar and Egypt to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire deal.
But experts say continued Israeli attacks in Gaza risk derailing those efforts, with some accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to sabotage any possible deal to end the war.
The attack on the Gaza City school was described by paramedics and others at the scene as horrific, with “bodies torn to pieces.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said Palestinians sheltering in the school compound were praying when Israeli forces targeted them with at least three airstrikes.
“The civil defense team said they were able to find 100 bodies, but they claim there are still more trapped. Most of the bodies are so disfigured that they are unable to recognize these Palestinians,” Khoudary said.
“People who survived the attack say it was one of the worst days they have experienced since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel has claimed, without any evidence, that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters were operating from the school – a claim Hamas denies.
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement Saturday that “far too many civilians continue to be killed and injured” and called for a ceasefire and a deal on the hostages.
Echoing Israel’s claims without providing evidence, he added: “We know that Hamas uses schools as places of assembly and operation, but we have also repeatedly and consistently stated that Israel must take steps to minimize harm to civilians.”
The same day as@SecBlinkenordered new arms sales to Israel, @idf Bombs were thrown at a school in Gaza City, killing 100 people. Victims “in pieces”. Pavlovian conditioning for a ferocious army.
— Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) August 10, 2024
“No more bomb deliveries”
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the United States to end its “blind support (for Israel) that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women and the elderly.”
Nabil Abou Rudeineh said in a statement that the US arms transfers to Israel make it “directly responsible for this massacre (at al-Tabin school) and the continuation of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip for the tenth consecutive month,” as reported by the Wafa news agency.
Human rights advocates in the United States have also renewed pressure for the Biden administration to end its arms transfers to Israel following the school attack.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the US-based advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now, criticized the arms sales as “Pavlovian conditioning for a savage army.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights organization for Muslims in the United States, also said the attack on Gaza City deserved a serious response from the Biden administration.
“If President Biden cares about human life, he will respond to this act of state terrorism by immediately stopping the flow of weapons to the Israeli government and forcing Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire agreement he continues to sabotage,” CAIR wrote on X.
“No more calling on Israel to investigate itself. No more delivering bombs. This US-backed genocide must stop immediately.”
Former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy also told Tel Aviv Tribune on Saturday that the US’ $3.5 billion military funding plan for Israel demonstrated the “dishonesty and duplicity of the US administration.”
Levy said Washington had shown “humiliating weakness” by saying Biden “got really angry” during a recent call with Netanyahu but then handed the Israeli prime minister an additional $3.5 billion in weapons funding.
“You have to understand that this is not just a weakness. It’s also a question of ideological alignment. The American government is the guarantor of the axis of Zionist extremism,” Levy said. “They may not like some of the details, but this is what they support.”