Decapitated and ‘shredded’ bodies: Survivors recount Israeli attacks on Gaza schools
Palestinians inspect the damage in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, 16 December 2024
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 16 December 2024:
In a scene becoming all too familiar in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians living in displacement shelters and so-called “safe-zones” were targeted by Israeli bombs over the weekend, with dozens killed and more injured.
Over two days, the Israeli military bombed at least four areas, including two schools, housing displaced families, across the Gaza Strip. Witnesses told Mondoweiss that the bombings left horrific scenes of decapitated and “shredded bodies.” The army also bombed a post belonging to Palestinian Civil Defense workers, killing five rescue workers and an Al Jazeera cameraman.
In the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli army stormed the Khalil Awida School in Beit Hanoun, which is housing approximately 1,500 people who were recently displaced from their homes during Israel’s ongoing siege of north Gaza.
According to Muhammad al-Sharif, a journalist in northern Gaza, the army surrounded the school and called out over the loudspeakers, ordering the people inside to move out into the school’s courtyard. There, the army separated the women, men, children and elderly, before detaining a number of people and ordering the rest to go to the nearest army checkpoint that would push the residents south, towards Gaza City.
“After the army left, the army threw burning bombs at the school, and those who remained inside and tried to take cover were burned alive by the Israeli army,” al-Sharif said.