- News code: 1640056
Condemnations have poured in from across the world following the Israeli regime’s genocidal airstrikes on a school-turned-shelter housing displaced Palestinians in the east of Gaza City.
The Gaza government media office said more than100 citizens were killed and dozens injured on Saturday morning after the Israeli occupation forces bombed the al-Tabi’in school in the al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City.
The media office said the occupation warplanes bombed the school while citizens were performing the dawn prayer.
Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Foreign Ministry denounced the Israeli savage attack in the “strongest terms” and stressed the “need to stop mass massacres” in the strip.
The ministry said Gaza is “experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe due to the ongoing violations of international law.”
Qatar
The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs slammed the strike as a “horrific massacre and a brutal crime against defenseless civilians,” calling for an independent UN fact-finding mission to investigate Israel’s attacks on shelters for displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
The international community should oblige Israel to ensure displaced Palestinians’ protection and uphold international law, it said.
Egypt
In a statement cited by the state-run Middle East News Agency, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said Israel’s “deliberate killing” of unarmed people of Palestine proves the regime’s lack of the political will to end the war in Gaza.
It added that Israel has committed repeated “large-scale crimes” against “unarmed civilians” whenever there is an international push for a ceasefire.
Such Israeli attacks reflect “an unprecedented disregard” for international law, it emphasized.
Jordan
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israel’s attack was a violation of “all humanitarian values” and indicated the Israeli regime’s attempt to “block [peace] efforts and postpone them.”
“The absence of a decisive international stance to restrain Israeli aggression and compel it to respect international law and stop its aggression against Gaza” was rooted in “unprecedented killings, deaths and human catastrophe.”
Lebanon
The Israeli attack on Gaza school presented clear evidence of the regime’s disregard for international humanitarian law and its intention to prolong the war and expand its scope, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said.
It stressed the importance of taking a unified stance by the international community, saying it is necessary to end Israel’s 10 months of war in the Gaza Strip to prevent an escalation in the region.
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates also condemned in the strongest terms Israel's targeting of the al-Tabi’in school.
In a statement, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejected the targeting of civilians and civilian facilities.
It stressed the importance of ensuring the immediate, safe, sustainable, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian, relief and medical aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Iraq
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the “savage” attack on the Gaza school.
The Ministry emphasized that such repeated crimes against civilians constitute a blatant violation of all international laws.
"These crimes reflect the Israeli regime's disregard for international initiatives aimed at halting the aggression against Gaza."
Turkey
In a statement on Saturday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry denounced Israel’s deadly airstrikes on Gaza schools as a "new crime against humanity".
"Israel has committed a new crime against humanity by massacring more than a hundred civilians who had taken refuge in a school," the ministry said.
It added that the attack shows once again that the Israeli regime “wants to sabotage permanent ceasefire negotiations.”
The ministry emphasized that the international actors who do not take measures to stop Israel are complicit in such crimes by the Israeli regime.
Iran
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani on Saturday condemned the Israeli bombing of the school in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The continuation of the insane attacks by the Zionist regime against Palestinian civilians and the brutal massacre of women, children and the elderly, especially today’s heinous attack by this regime on the Palestinian refugees living in the al-Taba’in school, once again proved that the apartheid regime of Israel does not respect any of the rules and regulations of international law as well as moral and human principles,” Kan’ani said.
Syria
In a statement on Saturday, Syria’s Foreign and Expatriates Ministry condemned Israel’s massacre in the Gaza school and criticized the international community’s failure to take action to stop the regime’s killing machine against the defenseless Palestinian people in the Strip for more than 10 months due to the West’s support for this criminal entity.
“Syria reiterates that the Israeli entity’s persistence in shedding the blood of innocents in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria will increase the determination of the people of this region to resist it and respond to its crimes, despite all the Western support for this entity to continue its crimes,” the statement read.
Russia
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the deadly Israeli airstrike on Gaza school, saying such attacks undermine international efforts to de-escalate the war, reach an urgent ceasefire and exchange captives.
In a statement, Zakharova added that such attacks, which result in civilian casualties, appear to be systematic, emphasizing that Israel must stop targeting civilian sites.
“We believe there is no and can be no justification for such actions,” the spokesperson pointed out.
Pakistan
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the Israeli attack, describing it as barbarity with no historical precedent.
“Israel has crossed all limits in its open aggression,” Sharif said in a statement issued by his office.
He called upon the international community, including the United Nations, to take practical steps to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza.
Sharif reiterated Pakistan’s demand to hold Israeli leadership and its armed forces accountable for the genocide of Palestinians and war crimes.
“Israel should be given strict punishment for its gruesome crimes,” he said and stressed upon the implementation of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) verdict against Israel.
Organization of Islamic Cooperation
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned the attack as “an extension of the brutal massacres and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation for more than ten months in the Gaza Strip.”
It called on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to oblige Israel to respect its obligations as an occupying power under international law and provide protection to the Palestinian people.
European Union
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said he was “horrified” by the images of the Israeli attack, adding that at least 10 schools were targeted in the past week.
“There’s no justification for these massacres,” Borrell said on X.
Belgium
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said Belgium “strongly condemns the attack on a school in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of at least one hundred displaced people”.
“This war must stop immediately. Targeting civilian infrastructure violates international law and is unacceptable,” Lahbib wrote in a post on X.
Backed by the US and its Western allies, the Israeli regime launched an all-out invasion of Gaza after it was caught off-guard by Operation Al-Aqsa Storm inside the occupied territories in October last year.
At least 39,790 Palestinians have since been killed, most of them women and children, and 92,002 others injured in the merciless Israeli aggression.
Israel has also been enforcing a crippling siege on the coastal territory by choking off the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory.
