Palestinian Territory – Initial investigations by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor found no proof or indication of any military operations or combatants at the Tab’een School in Gaza City, whose prayer hall Israel targeted in a brutal massacre that claimed the lives of over 100 Palestinians.
Quite the contrary, the location turned out to be a series of narrow buildings, with sections open to each other and lacking any equipment, where dozens of Palestinian families had taken refuge after being forcibly displaced from their homes, some of which have since been completely erased from the civil registry.
The Euro-Med Monitor field and legal team carried out a survey and preliminary investigation at the Tab’een School, which was providing shelter to over 2,500 displaced people in Gaza City. The team gathered data, recorded the statements of witnesses and survivors, and surveyed the location following the attack. According to all available information and testimonies, there were no military gatherings or centers at the school, and it was never used for military objectives. Survivors testified that the school was providing shelter to hundreds of children whose families felt safe there.
The narrow layout of the school and the lack of launch pads and shelters would make it impossible for the site to be used for military operations.
Furthermore, the narrow layout of the school and the lack of launch pads and shelters would make it impossible for the site to be used for military operations. The building’s cramped layout and tight spaces make it unsuitable for military operations that call for planning and logistical assistance. The school was used as an emergency shelter for civilians fleeing demolished areas, not for military activities or equipment, according to testimony gathered from displaced civilians there. As a result, the attack on the school was unjustified and blatantly violated international humanitarian law.
The Israeli bombing specifically targeted the prayer hall where displaced people were praying at dawn, as well as the upper prayer hall used for housing women and children. Preliminary reports indicate that the Israeli army detonated three US-made bombs in the attack, which had a tremendous capacity to burn, melt, and destroy bodies. As a result, over 100 Palestinians were killed, including several families, and prominent academic figures at the universities of Gaza, among them Professor Youssef Al-Kahlout, an Arabic language professor.
Owing to the bombs’ immense destructive power, the victims’ bodies were reduced to shredded pieces and burned parts, along with numerous serious injuries. Some of the bombs used against the school crowded with displaced people weighed approximately two thousand pounds, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza.
The Israeli army’s defence of the massacre, on the grounds that the army was targeting a military site, is unfounded, and in any case, cannot justify the killing of so many civilians. Israel continues to murder, burn, and injure hundreds of civilians every day and then claim that the targeted areas contained military installations or leaders, without offering concrete proof or permitting independent international entities to confirm the veracity of these claims.
Israel must be bound by the principles of international humanitarian law, particularly those regarding distinction, proportionality, military necessity, taking necessary precautions, and the duty to protect civilians. This requires deciding on the best course of action for military operations and the kind of weaponry to employ with the express consideration of reducing civilian casualties and losses.
According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, any breach of these rules of international humanitarian law is regarded as a war crime. The attack on the Tab’een School is a flagrant breach of these rules and is just one of the military attacks that Israel has carried out against civilians directly and indiscriminately, which is an essential component of the crime of genocide that Israel has committed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
Mohammed Al-Kahlout, a displaced person and victim of the attack at the school, affirmed to the Euro-Med Monitor team that he did not see any combatants or military presence in the school while he was there. “I was getting ready to go pray, and I could have been with them in a few moments,” he continued. “Three missiles or large bombs fired by Israeli planes caused the massacre. I felt extremely afraid. The bodies and limbs were mutilated and burned when I arrived; there were mounds of burnt flesh. After several weeks at the school, I had not witnessed any armed militants or manifestations. I always pray in the prayer hall, and everyone there is a civilian. Both my relative, Professor Youssef Al-Kahlout, and numerous civilians were killed in the attack. Above the prayer hall was the women’s prayer hall, which was designated to accommodate women, and everyone in it was killed.”
Ms. Susan Mohammed Al-Barawi, a refugee at the Tab’een School, provided the following testimony to the Euro-Med Monitor team: “We were sleeping. We woke up to the sound of an explosion and a fire. We left our classrooms to find a fire burning near the prayer hall. The Tab’een School’s women’s prayer hall is situated directly above the men’s prayer hall. After their homes were targeted, many families were forced to evacuate. At least twenty families with children and elderly women were in the school. The missiles were dropped among them, killing many of them. Those who made it through were either severely burned or had their limbs amputated. I saw injured people with their intestines coming out. Young girls, the oldest of whom was 13 years old, another 10 years old, and some as young as two years old, were among the victims.”
Mahmoud Nidal Al-Basyouni, a child who lost his father in the prayer hall explosion, gave the following testimony: “Today at dawn, my father went to pray Fajr in the school prayer hall. While my family was asleep, I woke up. When I watched the missile fall, I knew that there would be casualties and that a massacre was going to occur, but I had no idea that my father would be one of them. I witnessed the fire that resulted from the intentional targeting. I cried for my father, my grandfather, my uncle, and many of the fathers of the children who were targeted during Fajr prayer in the prayer hall and who we were unable to say goodbye to. In the prayer hall, I saw mutilated bodies and bits of flesh. The bombing occurred unexpectedly and with no notice or warning beforehand.”
The Israeli army released a statement containing the names and images of 19 Palestinians in an attempt to justify the massacre. The statement claimed that the individuals were members of Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and their military apparatuses.
The Euro-Med team’s preliminary investigation found that the Israeli army used names of Palestinians killed in Israeli raids—some of whom were killed in earlier raids—in its list, and took their photos from the Israeli-controlled civil registry
Following the initial review, it was discovered that three of the 19 names listed by the Israeli army as “terrorists who were eliminated” in the Tab’eeb School massacre had already been killed in earlier Israeli bombing attacks. These three include Ahmed Ihab al-Jaabari, who was killed on 5 December 2023, Youssef al-Wadiyya, who was targeted by the Israeli military two days prior to the massacre, and Montaser Daher, who was killed on Friday? in a residential flat with his sister, one day prior to the massacre.
Three elderly civilians who had no connection to the military action were also among the victims, including a school principal, Abdul Aziz Misbah Al-Kafarna, deputy mayor of Beit Hanoun, an academic and an Arabic language teacher, Yousef Kahlout; and six civilians, some of whom were even Hamas opponents.
While strongly maintaining that there is no excuse under international humanitarian law for using disproportionate and unnecessary force and killing dozens of civilians in order to target a specific person, Euro-Med is still checking the remaining names.
The Israeli army is increasingly targeting schools that provide shelter for the forcibly displaced population in Gaza City, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians in the process. It has also issued orders for the illegal forced displacement of Gaza from the north to the south, in a systematic effort to uproot the Palestinian people from their homes and places of displacement, robbing them of any stability. The ultimate goal is to empty Gaza City, eliminate as many of its elites as possible, and render the city uninhabitable, regardless of military necessity.
The Israeli army is deliberately destroying the remaining shelter centres to deny Palestinians what few places remain where they may seek refuge after the systematic and widespread destruction of homes and shelters, including schools and public facilities, over the past ten months.
By continuing to bomb the entire Gaza Strip and targeting shelters, such as those housed in UNRWA schools, the Israeli bombing strategy clearly indicates the intent to destroy the Palestinians’ lives and deprive them of security and stability, if only temporarily.
Civilians in the Gaza Strip are paying the price for Israeli military attacks that violate with impunity the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity.
Accordingly, all countries must fulfil their international obligations by putting an end to Israel’s crime of genocide and other serious offenses in the Gaza Strip. They must safeguard the civilians of the Gaza Strip, compel Israel to abide by international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice, impose strong sanctions on Israel, and cut off all other forms of political, financial, and military assistance or collaboration. This includes an immediate stop to all arms sales, exports, and transfers to Israel, including export licenses and military aid, as well as guaranteeing accountability for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
Furthermore, countries that aid and abet Israel in carrying out these crimes, including aid and contractual relationships in the military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, media, and other domains that facilitate the perpetuation of these crimes, must be held responsible. Of these countries, the United States is the most prominent accomplice.
Decision-makers and relevant officials in these states must be held responsible since they collaborated and were complicit in the crimes, including the crime of genocide, Israel has carried out in the Gaza Strip.
As part of their international legal obligations to ensure that those who commit international crimes are held accountable, tried, and prevented from going unpunished, as well as to arrest and prosecute them in compliance with applicable national and international laws, all nations are required to begin criminal investigations and trials before their national courts. This requirement is based on universal jurisdiction.
