Hamas condemns Israel for damaging UNRWA school in Gaza airstrike
During the strike, an object that appears to be missile hit the lower wall of a school, but seemingly failed to detonate.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFSmoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip March 25, 2019(photo credit: AHMED ZAKOT / REUTERS)
Hamas on Thursday condemned Israel for damage cause to a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) School in Gaza during an IDF retaliatory airstrike earlier in the morning.During the strike, an object that appears to be missile hit the lower wall of a school, but seemingly failed to detonate.UNRWA said that the “Beach Co-Educational School ‘D’ in Gaza was affected by an Israeli airstrike. Initial reports indicated that the device did don’t explode. School students were on the premises and the school is now closed."The Agency is awaiting a full report on the nature of the damage and the alleged unexploded ordnance,” UNRWA said.It added that it was awaiting a proper assessment of the situation, before “requesting accountability from those responsible.”Hamas said that the attack had placed “hundreds of Palestinian students at serious risk” and charged that “targeting civilian institutions, including the international organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, is a new crime added to a continuous spate of war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people everywhere around the clock.”It called on the International community to “denounce this crime, hold the Israeli occupation accountable and bring its leaders to justice as soon as possible, cut global support for it, boycott it, and imposed sanctions on it.”The IDF airstrike came in the aftermath of heightened tensions between Hamas and Israel, in which Palestinians from Gaza had launched incendiary balloons against civilian areas in southern Israel.
