On August 10, Israel committed one of its largest massacres in the Gaza Strip after the massacre in the Baptist Hospital and the Mawasi massacre. Al Tabeen school in the Daraj neighborhood, which was used as a shelter for those who fled their areas because of the bombing, was targeted with 3 missiles.
The attack was during the dawn prayer. Nearly 100 were killed and tens were injured. Parts of bodies were splattered everywhere. Ambulances and civil defense workers struggled to hold the torn bodies of people to the hospitals.
Tens of countries and international parties condemned the attack which counted as the twenty-first Israeli attack targeting a school since July 4.
Accordingly, Daniel Hagari, the head of the IOF Spokesperson's Unit, uploaded a four-minute statement justifying the attack on Al Tabeen school.
No Certain Proof Of Hamas’s Use of The Buildings That Israel Targets
Hagari began his statement by claiming that Hamas built a massive network of underground tunnels under towns, hospitals, mosques, schools, and U.N. facilities and used them as headquarters.
However, Israel has been making this claim since the invasion of the Shifa hospital last November. A CNN report by the journalist Orne Liebermann, who visited Gaza City in November 2023, says after reporting on an alleged tunnel discovered by the IOF that the alleged discovery could not be considered proof that Hamas is using the hospital as its cover.
Israel sometimes falsely claims that water wells at hospitals are Hamas tunnels. Ten months before the targeting of Al-Tabeen school, Israel claimed it found a Hamas tunnel under Sheikh Hamad Hospital, arguing that this justifies repeated bombardment on hospital vicinities.
A visit by Alaraby's correspondent told otherwise. The alleged tunnel turned out to be a water wall.
Israel also previously made allegations that it found a tunnel under a certain building to make up an excuse for the complete damage it had done in it but then failed to provide proper proof that there was indeed a tunnel underneath.
In January 2024, Israel damaged the Bani Suheila cemetery, near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, turning it into a gaping hole, justifying the heavy damage by claiming that there was a command center under the cemetery.
A CNN investigation found that through geolocating the tunnel entrances using footage filmed on the ground and satellite imagery, the two tunnel entrances the IOF showed were clearly near the cemetery, neither was on the cemetery grounds.
No Evidence That Hamas Exploited The School Building
In the statement, Hagari claimed that Hamas exploited Al Tabeen school building. However, the Euro-Med investigation found no proof or indication of any military operations or combatants at Al Tabeen school.
On the contrary, the findings of the investigation indicated that there were no military gatherings, and the school buildings were never used for military objectives.
The cramped layout of the school is narrow and lacks launch pads and shelters making it impossible for the school to be used for military operations.
The Israeli bombing targeted the prayer hall where people displaced in the school and living near the school were praying at dawn, as well as the upper prayer hall used for housing women and children, and no evidence about the exploitation of the school in military activities was provided by Israel.
Zain Hassouna, a resident near the school who has closely watched the school since the start of the war, told Misbar’s team that the school has no room for any military presence as it is totally cramped with displaced people. Zain sent her son, Mohammed, to the school there to resume his school studies, as Al Tabeen school is one of the fewest schools in Gaza City that volunteered to resume the teaching process that was interrupted by Israel. “Because the school is overcrowded with displaced people, they made us send the children to Al Tabeen mosque, two streets away from Al Tabeen school. The school was just used to provide shelter for people and to teach some Qur’an courses.” She then affirmed that no military presence could have been found in an overcrowded place like Al Tabeen school.
The Names Released By The IOF Included People Already Deceased Or With No Relation To Hamas
Later in the statement, Hagari said that two dozen Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating in the school according to Israel’s intelligence. He said that the names of nineteen of them were published by Israeli officials.
The list included some names and photos of people who were already killed in earlier Israeli raids. The photo of a young man, allegedly named Munther Nasser Daher was included in the list claiming that he was an “Islamic Jihad operative.” However, the investigation revealed that the young man’s real name is Montaser Nasr Daher. He was killed with his sister on Friday 9, a day before Al Tabeen school massacre.
Youssef Sayed al-Wadiya, who was the first name on the Israeli army’s list, was also killed before the Al Tabeen massacre. His brother, Mohammed Sayed al-Wadiya posted on August 9, a day before the massacre, mourning his brother Youssef.
Ahmed Ihab Baker Al Jaabari who was also included in the list was killed in December 2023. His cousin, Moaz Al Jaabari posted on his X account confirming that he was killed in the Shujaiya neighborhood during the IOF invasion last December.
The list included four members of the Jaabari family. According to Ramy Abdu, the chairman of the Euro-Med Monitor, these four never engaged in any political or military activities.
The list also included four names who Abdu identified as civilians who have no ties to Hamas or any political activities: Abul Aziz Al-Kafarneh, an elderly civilian working in the public services sector, Muhammad Hamid Al-Taif, a former school principal and a mediator in a local committee, Ihab Baker Al Jaabari, a civilian employee in public services, and Burham Al-Jaabari, a young photographer who was arrested during the siege of Al-Shifa Hospital four months ago and the army later released him calling him, "a model Palestinian who doesn't seek trouble."
The Attack On Al Tabeen School Was Infringed International Law
Hagari then claimed that after they received “clear evidence” that Hamas was performing at the school, they attacked the school in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Statements of Palestinian and International agencies as well as testimonies of families of the attack victims contradict Hagari’s claim.
According to Ismail al-Thawabteh, the head of Gaza's government media office, 90% of those who were praying were killed, most of them injured severely. Numbers and names provided by the civil defense in Gaza and the Health ministry prove that there were children and women in the place who were brutally killed.
In its statement after the attack, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that Israel failed to strictly comply with obligations required by International Humanitarian Law (IHL), including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack.
Contrary to Hagari’s claims that the attack complies with international humanitarian law, the interpretive guidance on the notion of direct participation in hostilities under international humanitarian law, Geneva, states that all persons who are not militants are civilians and are entitled to protection against direct attack.
Furthermore, the attack on any buildings used for housing civilians like Al Tabeen breaches international law and is considered a war crime. According to Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, hostilities against civilian housing, and infrastructure rendering an entire city uninhabitable for civilians is a war crime.
Attacks on schools are one of the six grave violations identified and condemned by the U.N. Security Council. The Israeli attacks on schools are considered a violation against children in armed conflict and are prohibited under International Law.
It should also be noted that Hagari’s statement contradicts itself. In the statement, Hagari did not debunk attacking civilian men, he just addressed women and children. Out of the 93 killed, Hagari singled out only nineteen alleged militants, which clearly suggests that the other 74 were civilians who are protected by international law, yet he claimed that they proceeded with the attack in accordance with international law.
Numbers Provided By The Health Ministry of Gaza Are Verified
Hagari then added that no women and children were in the targeted area, adding that the figures of killed which was published by the government information office in Gaza are “unverified casualty count,” do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and do not match the information held by the IOF.
However, women and children were indeed present in the area and were killed too. The civil defense announced that 11 children and 6 women were killed in the attack.
These numbers were also adopted and approved by international agencies, such as the OHCHR.
Over the past months of the war, Israel has been attempting to implant skepticism of the figures provided by Palestinian offices regarding civilians killed in its brutal attacks. The United Nations confirmed that these numbers have proven consistently credible in the past.
The U.N. Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said, “In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in the Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no one ever really challenged these figures.”
The numbers published by the government in Gaza are also credible and proven by the World Health Organisation, whose spokesman told Libération that “the numbers announced could have been underestimated based on the past conflicts in the occupied Palestinian territories and other areas.”
Hagari alleged that the numbers did not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but did not provide the numbers they claimed to have about civilians.
He only referred to a list published by Avichae Adraee having 19 alleged militants. Upon excluding the aforementioned deceased and opposed to Hamas names, the list would only have 8 names, meaning that Israel made one of its bloodiest attacks in Gaza City killing 93 to only eliminate allegedly 8 militants.
Israel Exploits The Israeli Prisoners’ Cause To Continue The War
In the conclusion of his statement, Hagari said that Israel would continue in this war in order to bring back home all the “hundred and fifteen hostages, men, women, children, and the elderly.” He added that Israel is operating to make the conditions to bring them back home.
Nevertheless, the peace deals that Israel has been rejecting over the 11 months of war prove that Israel uses the Israeli prisoners' cause as a justification for the ongoing crimes in Gaza.
Since the beginning of this war, Israel has repeatedly refused ceasefire deals that would bring home every Israeli prisoner in the Gaza Strip.
On October 16, Hamas proposed a deal to free the Israeli prisoners in Gaza in exchange for 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel, however, refused the deal and intensified the bombardment.
On October 17, Hamas expressed willingness to release all the Israeli civilians if Israel stopped its airstrikes on Gaza, yet Israel did not.
A screenshot of NBC News’ article
On October 28, Sinwar said that Hamas was ready for an immediate swap of all Israeli prisoners in the Strip in exchange for all the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
This demand is known as “all for all.” It was widely demanded by Israelis protesting for the Israeli prisoners in the Strip.
On March 15, Hamas proposed to release all women, children and elderly to be released in the first stage in exchange for 700-1000 Palestinian prisoners. However, Israel said that the proposal is based on ‘unrealistic demands.’
In an article published in The Times Of Israel last April, Haim Rubinstein, an experienced media adviser who had previously served as spokesman for former Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelah and as a member of the party’s media team in four election campaigns, says that the Israeli government prevents hostage deals.
Rubinstein resigned in March as the spokesman of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. He says that the Israeli government was ignoring the families of the hostages and no updates were provided to them.
According to Rubinstein, on October 26, Gallant had promised to meet the families the next day in response to a square in Tel Aviv. In the meeting, Netanyahu declared that dismantling Hamas was the goal of the war and did not promise anything regarding the demand to return the hostages.
The families knew later that on October 9, Hamas had offered to release all the civilian hostages in exchange for the Israeli army not entering the Strip, but the government rejected the offer.
For Rubinstein, the time for releasing is not running out but has already run out.
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