UN condemns Israel's attack on Gaza school and urges ceasefire

Security Council says no place is safe in the Strip

'We must act now,' Amar Bendjama, Algeria's permanent representative to the UN, told the Security Council. Reuters

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UN officials condemned Israel's recent attack on Al Tabaeen school, in which at least 100 Palestinians were killed

The August 10 strike on the school in eastern Gaza city – where more than 2,400 displaced people were sheltering – was one of at least 21 strikes on schools recorded since July 4, the UN Security Council in New York heard.

The Al Tabaeen attack highlighted “the desperate need to reach a ceasefire, free the hostages and scale up humanitarian aid”, Rosemary DiCarlo, under secretary general for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, told Security Council members in a meeting called by Algeria, a non-permanent member of the council.

Ms DiCarlo said the situation in Gaza “remains catastrophic”, while hostilities continue.

“No place is safe in Gaza, yet civilians continue to be ordered to evacuate to ever shrinking areas,” she said.

The attack was “far from an isolated incident”, Lisa Doughten, director of partnerships at the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the council.

“These large-scale incidents are, sadly, only some of the myriad ways in which this horrendous conflict is causing unbearable suffering and devastation,” she said.

Algeria urged for sanctions on Israel, accusing the Israelis of deliberately ignoring decisions taken by the council and obstructing an earlier resolution on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

“For 311 days, our council has been ignored, while an entire people is being subjected to collective punishment”, said Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s permanent representative to the UN Security Council.

Mr Bendjama criticised the continued military and financial aid that several member states provide to Israel. He said the targeting displaced civilians – including the bombing of Al Tabaeen school – “wouldn't have been possible without the generous financial and military assistance freely provided to the Israeli aggressor”.

“We must act now, because our failure to act costs human lives and threatens the fate of the Palestinian people,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had approved the sale of fighter jets and other military equipment worth more than $20 billion to Israel.

Last week, Washington announced it would provide Israel with $3.5 billion to spend on US weapons and military equipment. The release of the money comes months after Congress appropriated it.

Palestine's envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said that on the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions “Israel continues taking human lives and every action possible to spread wildfires across the Middle East”.

He demanded that the council act to stop Israel's impunity and save human lives, saying the world has watched Palestinian people for months “suffer, starve, and die”.

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and at least 92,000 injured since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war. Israel's strikes and ground offensive followed a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 240 abducted.