The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that the Israeli occupation forces continue to invade schools where tens of thousands of displaced people have taken shelter, and carry out serious violations in them, including physical liquidations, arrests, abuse, and intimidation of civilians.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory said in a statement on Sunday: It documented the Israeli forces’ storming this morning of Al-Rafi’i School in Jabalia Al-Balad, which houses thousands of displaced people, and the arrest of males aged 15 years and above, after forcing them to strip naked and remain in their underwear, before the soldiers took them to an unknown destination and they forcefully remove women amid gunfire.

Euro-Med highlighted that Israeli forces have turned shelter centers, most of which are in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and carrying the UN logo, into permissible targets since the first days of their large-scale war on the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory indicated that the Israeli military attacks took several forms. In the beginning, shelter centers were repeatedly targeted by aerial bombardment, which led to the killing of hundreds of citizens and the wounding of hundreds of others, as happened several times in Al-Fakhoura School, and dozens of other schools in Gaza and its north, in addition to Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip and Al-Bureij in the center of the Gaza Strip.

It stressed that the preliminary information he collected indicates that these attacks were unjustified and targeted unarmed civilians who took refuge in shelter centers after receiving Israeli displacement orders from their homes and areas of residence.

The Euro-Med Monitor stated that the second phase of targeting schools and shelter centers accompanied the ground incursion, indicating that it had received dozens of reports about Israeli army forces storming those schools after destroying their walls and gates with tanks, amid heavy gunfire and shells from tanks.

It highlighted that the Israeli forces carried out field executions in many of these schools, as happened in the “Shadia Abu Ghazaleh” school in Jabalia, where, after the Israeli forces withdrew from the area on December 13, it was found that there were nine bodies, including women and children.

In its testimony about what happened, the elderly person, “Youssef Khalil,” told Euro-Med that after the Israeli forces stormed the school, two soldiers opened direct fire on his family members while they were in one of the classrooms.

“Khalil” stated that after his family members were liquidated, Israeli forces arrested him and others for several days, during which he was beaten and tortured, before he was later released. After the Israeli forces withdrew from the vicinity of the school where they were stationed for a week, Khalil returned to the school to find the bodies of his family members nearly decomposed. Among the victims were a woman, her husband, and several of their children.

Video clips from the school monitored by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory, filmed from December 13 to 15, showed destroyed classrooms, at least two bodies on the floor, a number of bodies of people, including a woman, a mattress soaked in blood, bullet holes, and bloodstains on the floor.

Euro-Med stated that in addition to the killings in shelter schools, the Israeli forces are detaining males from the age of 14 years and above, forcing them to take off their clothes and transporting them to other locations with inhuman torture and abuse. As for the women, they are subjected to investigation and interrogation, arresting some of them, and releasing the rest.

Eyewitnesses told the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor team that Israeli forces looted money and personal belongings of the displaced, including confiscating gold for women in several cases.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory stated that the third stage of violations against these schools and shelter centers centered on converting them into military barracks for tanks or using them as temporary headquarters for the occupation forces and centers for interrogation and abuse of citizens.

It pointed out that the fourth stage of targeting shelter centers is to destroy them, whether by planting explosives or completely destroying them, as the Israeli forces publish video clips of these destruction operations, as happened when they destroyed a school on December 12 of this month, near the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, north of Beit Lahia. Gaza.

Euro-Med stressed that while these schools are affiliated with the United Nations, and many of them were built with European funds from taxpayers in European Union countries, they are supposed to enjoy special protection at the height of military attacks. However, on the ground, Israeli forces continue to target it and celebrate - in many cases shown in video clips - its destruction and targeting.

It pointed out that the deliberate targeting of shelter centers and the perpetration of killing, destruction and abuse are a natural result of the policy of impunity and the state of international silence that encourages Israel to commit more war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It stressed that the ongoing killings, physical liquidations, and systematic destruction of buildings and facilities have no explanation or justification other than that they are part of systematic revenge operations, the price of which is paid by civilians protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory called for the opening of an urgent international investigation into the horrific crimes committed by the Israeli army in areas of its land incursions into the Gaza Strip, including field executions, arbitrary arrests, widespread torture of men and women, and the unnecessary destruction of schools.

It stressed that under international humanitarian law, Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harming civilians, and ensure their ability to provide satisfactory conditions for safety and shelter, while stressing that civilians who choose to remain in areas designated for evacuation do not lose their protection and are prohibited from being targeted under any justification.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor confirmed that an immediate ceasefire is the basic requirement that everyone must take action to achieve. To save what can be saved from the crime of genocide targeting 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, followed by activating all international mechanisms to investigate the crimes committed, in order to achieve accountability, justice and fairness.