UN Condemns School Raids In E. Jerusalem

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GENEVA, May 9 (Kuna) -- The United Nations (UN) strongly condemned on Friday the storming and forced closure of several UNRWA schools by Israeli occupation forces in occupied East Jerusalem.
In a press briefing in Geneva, Director of Communications at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Juliette Touma reported that heavily armed Israeli occupation forces entered three out of six UNRWA schools in a Palestinian refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem.
The Israeli occupation raids forced more than 550 children to leave their classrooms, as well as forced UNRWA to evacuate all schools in East Jerusalem leaving nearly 800 children some as young as six, in a state of shock and without access to education.
Touma emphasized that the storming and closure of UN schools which are UN premises constitutes a flagrant disregard for international law.
Touma also condemned the Israeli occupation forces' bombing of a school housing displaced persons in Gaza Strip on May 6, which resulted in the death of approximately 30 people.
"There is no safe place in Gaza, no escape for civilians. It is a profound moral collapse to witness this indifference toward the suffering of innocent people," she stressed.
For his part, UNICEF spokesman James Elder confirmed that more than 140 UNRWA schools have been targeted since the beginning of the war, most of which were sheltering displaced families.
He described the humanitarian situation as "catastrophic," especially in light of widespread hunger and the deprivation of aid, fuel, and medical supplies.
He added that the occupation's proposed plan to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza would deepen the suffering of civilians by forcing them to move to unsafe areas to obtain food.
"It is extremely dangerous to compel civilians to enter militarized areas to collect food. This deepens forced displacement for political and military purposes," he added.
"The elderly, children with disabilities, the wounded, they will struggle to reach these five designated aid points all located in the heavily bombarded south," he explained.
Elder emphasized that the use of aid as a means of political or military pressure constitutes a violation of basic humanitarian principles.
He further expressed concern about the Israeli occupation proposal to use facial recognition technology as a precondition for accessing aid, describing it as a flagrant breach of humanitarian norms.
UN OCHA Spokesperson Jens Laerke said, in a press conference, that the current Israeli plan does not meet the minimum requirements for humanitarian support and does not enable the UN to resume its humanitarian activities at the pace required to save lives.
He called for full and immediate opening of Gaza to allow unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid. (end)
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