Last week, more than 100 people were killed after Israel struck a Gaza City school housing displaced Palestinians, as the United Nations accused Israel of stepping up attacks on schools.
The attack on the al-Talbin school on Saturday during dawn prayers sparked global outrage.
Rescue workers at the scene described the carnage as horrific, with “dismembered bodies.” Israel said Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters were operating from the school, a claim Hamas denied.
Israel has repeatedly attacked schools, hospitals and universities in Gaza, claiming the buildings were being used for military purposes without providing any evidence.
With numerous evacuation orders since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, schools have often been used to shelter nearly two million Palestinians displaced in the besieged enclave.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, schools are considered civilian objects and must be protected from attack. Yet in the space of ten days in August, Israeli forces struck five schools in Gaza City, killing more than 179 people and wounding dozens more.
Where did the attacks on schools take place in August?
At least 15 people were killed and more than 29 injured in an Israeli strike on the Dalal al-Mughrabi school on August 1, authorities said.
Two days later, strikes on schools in Hamama and al-Huda left 17 dead and more than 60 injured.
On August 4, at least 30 people were killed and 19 others injured after Israel struck the Nassr and Hassan Salameh schools in the Nassr neighborhood of Gaza.
On August 8, Israel bombed the Abdul Fattah Hamouda and az-Zahra schools, killing 17 people and wounding dozens more.
The most serious attack in recent weeks was on the al-Tabin school, which Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary said was hit by at least three missile attacks.
The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, condemned the attack.
“Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, one neighborhood at a time, one hospital at a time, one school at a time, one refugee camp at a time, one ‘safe zone’ at a time. With American and European weapons,” she wrote on X.
Previous Israeli attacks on schools
In July, a similar campaign targeting school shelters in the Gaza Strip killed nearly 50 people in one week.
Nearly 85% of Gaza’s school buildings were damaged, and almost all schools in the northern Gaza Strip were “directly affected” or damaged. This was followed by those in Gaza City, where more than 90% of schools were damaged or destroyed.
According to data compiled by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as of July 6, 564 schools in the Gaza Strip have been directly hit or damaged by Israeli attacks.
- In northern Gaza, 95 school buildings were damaged or destroyed.
- In Gaza City, 208 school buildings were damaged or directly hit.
- Deir el-Balah, which has been part of the security zones in recent weeks, has seen 70 school buildings attacked.
- Khan Younis, where a large population of 75,000 people were forced to flee a few days ago, saw 125 school buildings directly hit and damaged.
- In Rafah, 66 school buildings were directly hit or damaged.
Are attacks on schools in Gaza increasing?
Israeli forces have increasingly been attacking school shelters that house thousands of people displaced by the war.
According to data compiled by UNICEF, since November, the number of schools directly affected has increased fivefold, from 60 to nearly 340.
The total number of children killed during the war has risen to more than 16,500, while the total death toll in Gaza stands at nearly 40,000.
The increase in attacks on school shelters comes amid global calls for a ceasefire and regional pressure to end the assault on Gaza, which has been turned into a vast wasteland of rubble.
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.
Additionally, analysts told Tel Aviv Tribune that the Israeli military strategically uses disproportionate violence.
“The Israeli military failed to secure the release of the hostages or deliver a ‘death blow’ to Hamas,” said Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a policy researcher at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian political network, who noted that “the massive attacks… give the Israeli government and military something to call a ‘victory’ if they result in the deaths of Hamas leaders and large numbers of civilians, because they are part of Israel’s broader strategy of deterrence through unprecedented destruction.”