MESSAGE
| DATE | 2023-11-14 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Gaza and the UN
|
The contention that the schools in Gaza are not teaching anti-semetism
is laughable if it wasn't so sad.
The U.N. Is Central to Life in Gaza. Now Its Mission There Is
Collapsing.
Jared Malsin and Anas Baba
7–8 minutes
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RAFAH, Gaza Strip—Huddled in classrooms and crouching under tarps slung
up in the courtyard, Palestinians seeking refuge from the fighting
raging in Gaza have crowded into a United Nations-run school here near
the Egyptian border.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees runs 183 schools
in the Gaza Strip, most of which have been pressed into service as
shelters. The agency, which also runs bakeries and clinics and provides
financial aid, has been central to life in the Palestinian enclave for
more than 70 years.
As Israel and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza,
battle, the agency says its ability to cope is fraying. More than 100 of
its workers have been killed. An Israeli blockade, imposed after Hamas’s
Oct. 7 attack on Israel, has cut off almost all shipments of food, fuel,
water and medicine.
On Tuesday, a U.N. spokeswoman said lack of fuel meant the agency’s
functions would “start gradually collapsing” as ambulances, sewage and
sanitation systems shut down.
At least 66 people sheltering in U.N. compounds have been killed in the
fighting, and more than 550 others injured, the U.N. says. Hamas, which
is designated by the U.S., the European Union and others as a terrorist
organization, has blamed Israel, saying it is attacking U.N. sites.
Israel’s military says Hamas has built tunnels near some U.N. schools
and fired rockets from areas close to them. Hamas didn’t respond to a
request for comment on allegations it builds tunnels under the schools
or uses them to hide materiel.
Since the Hamas assault on Israel—which included terrorist attacks on a
music festival and agricultural communities and killed 1,200 people,
according to Israeli authorities—the country has waged a campaign of
airstrikes and ground operations it says are aimed at eliminating Hamas.
On Sunday, the U.N. said shelling from an Israeli warship hit a
guesthouse where the agency’s international workers stay. The Israeli
military said it “carried out a strike based on operational
requirements, adjacent to a U.N. building.”
UNRWA said it inspects its schools to make sure that there is no
military equipment or activity that could compromise their neutral
status. Spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai said buildings were inspected before
the war and that the agency had monitored those entering the schools
since.
Last year, UNRWA identified what it called a man-made cavity underneath
the grounds of one of its schools in Gaza, in what it said was a
“serious violation of the agency’s neutrality and breach of
international law.” The agency protested to the local authorities in
Gaza, it said.
“We ourselves are very intent on making sure that our schools remain
neutral U.N. places, but we cannot speak for what Hamas does or doesn’t
do under our schools,” Alrifai said.
Israeli military officials say Hamas operates in and near civilian
buildings. The Israeli government also accuses UNRWA of employing Hamas
militants—an allegation it denies.
“Hamas has taken control of the whole of Gaza including U.N.
installations. We have done everything we can in this intensive war to
avoid damage to any international installation,” said a senior Israeli
military official. He said some were “hit because Hamas put weapons
inside schools.”
More than three-quarters of a million people have descended on UNRWA
school shelters since the outbreak of war. The average number of people
per shelter now is more than 6,250, which the U.N. said is nine times
higher than the intended capacity.
In times of peace, U.N. schools form a core part of Gaza’s education
system, teaching about 300,000 pupils, or about half the total number of
students in the strip. “They come out of here as engineers and doctors
and lawyers,” said Abu Hisham Subih, a 55-year-old who took shelter in
the school here after the war broke out.
Israel says the schools’ curriculum, which is shared by those operated
by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, contains antisemitic
material and teaches hatred.
The agency’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said the
allegation was “false and insidious.” The agency says that it adapts
textbooks to teach core U.N. principles such as tolerance and
nondiscrimination.
In times of war, Palestinians flock to the schools for shelter. “It was
incredible at first the rush to these UNRWA schools with the deep belief
that the schools are protected,” said Alrifai. “But the reality is that
in Gaza there’s nowhere safe.”
Across Gaza, more than 11,000 people, more than half of them women and
children, have been killed since Oct. 7, according to health authorities
in the Hamas-run enclave. The figures don’t distinguish between
civilians and militants.
On Monday, UNRWA said it received reports from witnesses that Israeli
security forces entered one school and two health centers in Gaza City
and used the installations for military operations.
The U.N. said witnesses reported that Israeli soldiers conducted
interrogations and arrested some people sheltering in the installations.
The Israeli military didn’t respond to a request for comment.
U.N. officials say they share the coordinates of all U.N. installations
in Gaza with both sides each day.
Palestinians say they continue to seek shelter in the schools because
they have nowhere else to turn. “The people in this school, their homes
are destroyed. Where are they going to go? In the streets?” said Subih,
the Palestinian camped out here.
Founded to address the needs of Palestinians who fled their homes during
the 1948 war at the creation of Israel, the agency now serves both the
refugees and their descendants, the majority of Gaza’s more than two
million residents.
UNRWA’s blue and white logo is everywhere in the strip, a symbol of
stability amid years of political and economic turbulence.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza, many of them
still in U.N. schools, with rapidly shrinking supplies, the agency says.
The U.N. says it hasn’t been able to verify the number of people in the
shelters in the north since Oct. 12 due to a lack of access and
communications.
In the south, U.N. schools have become severely overcrowded.
Palestinians wait in line for hours each day for bread, water and other
essentials. Brawls and disputes have begun breaking out in the lines as
frustration builds, according to the U.N.
Officials at the agency are increasingly worried about the spread of
gastrointestinal and other diseases in the packed facilities, where 160
people share one toilet and 700 a shower.
Issa Fayoumi, a teenager from Rafah who took shelter in the schools,
said drinking water is available only once a day. “And the bathrooms,”
he said. “I swear to God.”
Fatima AbdulKarim contributed to this article.
Write to Jared Malsin at jared.malsin-at-wsj.com
--
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