A school run by the United Nations in northern Gaza has been hit with apparently devastating impact, the UN confirmed Saturday, in what a top UN official described as a “horrifying” incident.
CNN only has a single screenshot of the video, which was run on Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera did not cite a source for the video.
Also important to note this is in a neighborhood that has seen extremely heavy combat in the last 48 hours. It’s doubtful full details will come out for a while, if ever.
Once you cross check confirmed data and historical trends with news, you get a better picture.
UN announced 9 days ago:
More than 100 United Nations employees have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Friday, making it the deadliest conflict ever for the U.N. in such a short period of time.
I’d be extremely surprised if it’s false. But there’s a lot of combat nearby - Hamas fighters fled from Gaza City to Jabaliya and Zeitoun where they don’t have a realistic escape route, and large Israeli forces who are actively engaged in combat through a dense urban area (quite literally at this very moment).
Not saying it’s not tragic, but these deaths could have been prevented by civilians evacuating to the southern Strip. UNRWA hold some responsibility for offering their facilities as shelter when they know full well that their facilities have been used for military purposes in the past and are liable to be legitimate military targets as a result.
And once again it’s the victim’s fault for taking the decision they thought best for themselves and everyone around them whom they protect.
Edit: and again we’re talking about evacuation routes that had dead bodies along the road. They were not safe. Whatever option those people took, they were between a rock and a hard place, they were going to risk dying either way. It’s only them whims of Israel that decide when and where they die.
The people taking shelter did exactly what they thought was right at the time. I am not blaming them. They are getting the extremely short end of the stick here. I am blaming UNRWA for lying to them that their facilities are safe. I am also blaming Hamas for both starting this war, and lying to them that it’s safer to stick around and be human shields for Hamas.
Gven the combat in the area, it was only a matter of time before a bomb gets dropped in the wrong place or someone fires a RPG in the wrong direction, or a tank shell skips off some rubble and goes off in the wrong direction.
I am blaming UNRWA for lying to them that their facilities are safe.
I’m sorry, what a bold statement you’re making. The UNRWA “lied” to these people about safe facilities? Seems to me more like UNRWA was trying to protect these civilians from an occupying oppressive force trying to ethnically cleanse them, so they offered the best help they could, and never ever said any place was safe. In fact, they consistently claimed that “no place is safe in Gaza”, like in this statement and many others on every news outlet. So your statement is pretty inaccurate.
Given the combat in the area, it was only a matter of time before a bomb gets dropped in the wrong place or someone fires a RPG in the wrong direction, or a tank shell skips off some rubble and goes off in the wrong direction.
The majority of those in Gaza, including hostages, have been killed directly by Israeli artillery and missiles that carpet-bombed Gaza. There was no “distinction”.
5,000 dead children later, we know for sure that this isn’t “accidental”. We know Israel wants to genocide and ethnically cleanse. They have been very clear about what they are doing. If you cannot see how these bodies piling up are the result of Israel’s killing machine, and can’t find it in yourself to believe the UN, all the journalist associations, or the red cross, then I can’t help you, sorry.
The southern Strip is objectively safer than the north. The blood of those people killed here are on the hands of UNRWA for refusing to close their facilities in the northern Strip. It’s on the hands of the employees in that school who told those families they were safe when they were not.
There are lots of dead children for two primary reasons: Hamas uses child soldiers, and Hamas uses kids as human shields. If you can’t look past the Arabic media’s repeated accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing to believe for a moment that maybe Hamas are actually evil then I don’t think anyone can help you.
Ah yes, it’s totally the fault of the UNRWA that tried its best to keep people alive and lost more than 100 workers. Totally not the fault of the big giant-ass army that has been ignoring humanitarian law for decades.
If you can’t look past the Arabic media’s repeated accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing
The UN and all its bodies, Amnesty, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, the BBC, Chomsky, Jewish Voices for Peace, every fucking human rights group… these aren’t “Arabic media”, are they?
If you can’t perceive objective reality and will drop any source for simply criticising Israel, then congratulations, you are one of the schmucks keeping this shitty war going.
I think blaming the UNRWA for civilian deaths is a really deeeeeep new low. Like too deep. Like please, crawl out of there, it’s embarrassing.
I’m talking about you, snek. The media that you read and watch. Stick with Reuters, AP, BBC, maybe CNN or something for three days. No Arabic language media (or English-variant thereof) whatsoever. Pay special attention to which stories are missing. I wouldn’t want you to deprive yourself of local news long term - that’s just unrealistic and petty. But give it a try and see what happens when you go back.
I don’t throw out a source for simply criticizing Israel, but I do give them a boot when they refuse to condemn Hamas’ actions, or they are so heavily one-sided that it’s no longer a joke. I strongly believe that this war needs to be seen through to the end of Hamas. A ceasefire would only prolong the suffering of Gazan civilians and ultimately result in the death of more civilians. Hamas could end this war immediately by surrendering to face trial for crimes against humanity and release the hostages.
UNRWA is not a clean organization. Their presence in Gaza is deeply enmeshed with Hamas to the point that UNRWA was at risk of losing their funding because they were unwilling to remove dehumanizing hate speech from their curriculum. Hamas successfully chased out a director because he dared to even say that Israel was trying to minimize civilian casualties.
CNN only has a single screenshot of the video, which was run on Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera did not cite a source for the video.
Also important to note this is in a neighborhood that has seen extremely heavy combat in the last 48 hours. It’s doubtful full details will come out for a while, if ever.
Once you cross check confirmed data and historical trends with news, you get a better picture.
UN announced 9 days ago:
So I’d surprised if it’s actually false.
I’d be extremely surprised if it’s false. But there’s a lot of combat nearby - Hamas fighters fled from Gaza City to Jabaliya and Zeitoun where they don’t have a realistic escape route, and large Israeli forces who are actively engaged in combat through a dense urban area (quite literally at this very moment).
Not saying it’s not tragic, but these deaths could have been prevented by civilians evacuating to the southern Strip. UNRWA hold some responsibility for offering their facilities as shelter when they know full well that their facilities have been used for military purposes in the past and are liable to be legitimate military targets as a result.
And once again it’s the victim’s fault for taking the decision they thought best for themselves and everyone around them whom they protect.
Edit: and again we’re talking about evacuation routes that had dead bodies along the road. They were not safe. Whatever option those people took, they were between a rock and a hard place, they were going to risk dying either way. It’s only them whims of Israel that decide when and where they die.
The people taking shelter did exactly what they thought was right at the time. I am not blaming them. They are getting the extremely short end of the stick here. I am blaming UNRWA for lying to them that their facilities are safe. I am also blaming Hamas for both starting this war, and lying to them that it’s safer to stick around and be human shields for Hamas.
Gven the combat in the area, it was only a matter of time before a bomb gets dropped in the wrong place or someone fires a RPG in the wrong direction, or a tank shell skips off some rubble and goes off in the wrong direction.
I’m sorry, what a bold statement you’re making. The UNRWA “lied” to these people about safe facilities? Seems to me more like UNRWA was trying to protect these civilians from an occupying oppressive force trying to ethnically cleanse them, so they offered the best help they could, and never ever said any place was safe. In fact, they consistently claimed that “no place is safe in Gaza”, like in this statement and many others on every news outlet. So your statement is pretty inaccurate.
The majority of those in Gaza, including hostages, have been killed directly by Israeli artillery and missiles that carpet-bombed Gaza. There was no “distinction”.
5,000 dead children later, we know for sure that this isn’t “accidental”. We know Israel wants to genocide and ethnically cleanse. They have been very clear about what they are doing. If you cannot see how these bodies piling up are the result of Israel’s killing machine, and can’t find it in yourself to believe the UN, all the journalist associations, or the red cross, then I can’t help you, sorry.
The southern Strip is objectively safer than the north. The blood of those people killed here are on the hands of UNRWA for refusing to close their facilities in the northern Strip. It’s on the hands of the employees in that school who told those families they were safe when they were not.
There are lots of dead children for two primary reasons: Hamas uses child soldiers, and Hamas uses kids as human shields. If you can’t look past the Arabic media’s repeated accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing to believe for a moment that maybe Hamas are actually evil then I don’t think anyone can help you.
Ah yes, it’s totally the fault of the UNRWA that tried its best to keep people alive and lost more than 100 workers. Totally not the fault of the big giant-ass army that has been ignoring humanitarian law for decades.
The UN and all its bodies, Amnesty, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, the BBC, Chomsky, Jewish Voices for Peace, every fucking human rights group… these aren’t “Arabic media”, are they?
If you can’t perceive objective reality and will drop any source for simply criticising Israel, then congratulations, you are one of the schmucks keeping this shitty war going.
I think blaming the UNRWA for civilian deaths is a really deeeeeep new low. Like too deep. Like please, crawl out of there, it’s embarrassing.
I’m talking about you, snek. The media that you read and watch. Stick with Reuters, AP, BBC, maybe CNN or something for three days. No Arabic language media (or English-variant thereof) whatsoever. Pay special attention to which stories are missing. I wouldn’t want you to deprive yourself of local news long term - that’s just unrealistic and petty. But give it a try and see what happens when you go back.
I don’t throw out a source for simply criticizing Israel, but I do give them a boot when they refuse to condemn Hamas’ actions, or they are so heavily one-sided that it’s no longer a joke. I strongly believe that this war needs to be seen through to the end of Hamas. A ceasefire would only prolong the suffering of Gazan civilians and ultimately result in the death of more civilians. Hamas could end this war immediately by surrendering to face trial for crimes against humanity and release the hostages.
UNRWA is not a clean organization. Their presence in Gaza is deeply enmeshed with Hamas to the point that UNRWA was at risk of losing their funding because they were unwilling to remove dehumanizing hate speech from their curriculum. Hamas successfully chased out a director because he dared to even say that Israel was trying to minimize civilian casualties.