New Delhi: Human rights continue to be violated as more innocent civilians pay the price in conflicts and war-like situations.
In the latest violation, an Israeli strike killed at least 22 people in a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City on Saturday, reported Reuters quoting Palestine authorities.
Gaza Health ministry claimed most of those killed were women and children. According to the Hamas-run government media office, 13 children and six women were among the dead.
Israeli military IDF (Israel Defense Forces), on the other hand, said the attack targeted a command centre of the militant group Hamas.
According to IDF, it hit a Hamas command centre embedded in the compound that previously served as a school, repeating an accusation that the group uses civilian facilities for military purposes.
Hamas has denied Israeli claim.
Reuters footage from the site showed blasted walls, wrecked and burnt furniture, and holes in the ceiling of one room as people tried to salvage remnants of their belongings.
“The women and their children were sitting in the playground of the school, the kids were playing, and suddenly two rockets hit them,” the news agency quoted witness Said Al-Malahi as saying.
Some of the victims were wrapped in blankets and carried away on donkey carts, while ambulances transferred other bodies.
“I couldn’t take it, I did not see a single man injured, it was all women and children… Let the Arab countries rejoice, let them rejoice and clap for (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the United States of America,” said another eyewitness Ahmed Azzam, frustrated that regional neighbours had not yet taken a tougher stand against Israel.