Israel bombed yet another UN school in Gaza on Friday, just a day after Israeli forces massacred dozens of Palestinians in a UN school-turned-shelter in an attack that has been widely condemned as a likely war crime.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed a UN school-turned-evacuation center in Al-Shati refugee camp, near Gaza City, as they carried out an intense series of bombardments on Friday. Palestinian officials have reported that three Palestinians were killed and 15 were injured.
The military boasted of the attack on social media, saying it struck a shipping container in the school grounds and attaching a picture of the container with a large UN logo visible on the adjacent building. The IDF claimed that it was targeting Hamas militants, an unverified claim that Israel has parroted many times in accounting for its countless bloody airstrikes over the past months.
This is the second time that Israel has struck a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school over the course of 48 hours. On Thursday, Israeli forces deployed U.S.-made bombs in an attack that killed at least 40 Palestinians, including 14 children, in Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Nuseirat attack sparked widespread outrage, with humanitarian groups quickly denouncing it as a potential war crime. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that Israel’s targeting of UN buildings is a “blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law” and that the UN specifically communicates the locations of its facilities with Israel in hopes of avoiding attacks.
The UNRWA swiftly called for investigations into attacks on UN facilities and personnel on Thursday, with officials noting that Israel has struck over 180 UNRWA buildings amid its genocide; Lazzarini noted that UN buildings are being damaged or destroyed on a daily basis, while Israeli forces have killed UN staff at “unprecedented levels.”
Indeed, UNRWA director for planning Sam Rose noted after the Nuseirat bombing that media and international leaders continuing to support Israel have created a situation where Israeli bombings of UN schools and slaughter of Palestinians has become normalized, with most attacks not even making headlines as Israel kills dozens each day and over 36,000 people so far, not including the thousands buried under the rubble and those dying to death and disease.
“We’ve seen this time and time again, to the extent that it’s almost become normalized. In previous conflicts, single incidents like this would cause shock and outrage and would be remembered forever. Whereas it seems in this conflict it will be this one will be replaced by another in a few days’ time unless it all comes to an end,” Rose told The Guardian after returning from a 5-week visit to Gaza.
“So, it almost becomes commonplace and mundane that these things are happening,” Rose said. “We have normalized horror.”
During this visit, Rose added, he was particularly taken aback “by the sheer number of people with crutches and wheelchairs with missing limbs, with wounds.” Aid groups have reported that over 10 children have had to have one or both legs amputated each day on average since October.
Rose’s comments speak to the rampant, systematic dehumanization of Palestinians that has been perpetuated by western corporate media outlets and political leaders for decades; his comments were made just before the strikes on Al-Shati, with the attack almost immediately demonstrating their veracity. Though the Nuseirat camp bombing was widely reported by western outlets, the Al-Shati bombing went virtually ignored across western media, save for one blurb in the Associated Press’s live coverage.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.