Israeli Strikes on Schools Pose a Life-or-Death Choice for Civilians

[Pelican Press 0]

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******** Strikes on Schools Pose a Life-or-****** Choice for Civilians

A deadly ******** strike on a school turned shelter in northern Gaza on Saturday exposed an agonizing dilemma for civilians in Gaza seeking safety after 10 months of war.

They could stay at the shelters, hoping for a modicum of security in the desperate conditions of Gaza. Or they can flee, knowing that the shelters themselves can become targets.

The school year has been abandoned in Gaza, and tens of thousands of civilians have flocked to the compounds since the earliest days of the war, trying to build temporary lives in classrooms and corridors, or pitching makeshift tents in schoolyards.

Conditions are atrocious, residents have said, but the schools, which offer walls and access to limited plumbing, are attractive for the simple reason that the alternatives are worse. *******’s airstrikes and ground assaults continue around the territory. Extreme hunger is widespread. And ********* are spreading fast in squalid, crowded camps and the ruins of former homes.

As a result, schools have been preferable options for many because they have offered the promise of better security in a conflict that has ******* nearly 40,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Ahmed Tahseen Abd Shabat, a 25-year-old who had been living at the Hafsa government school in Gaza City with his two brothers and parents, told The New York Times by phone that they arrived there as a last resort after fleeing 10 times since Oct. 7, when ****** led the deadly ******* on ******* that began the conflict.

“I don’t consider moving out of the school despite the constant targeting of schools because there is no safe zone in Gaza,” said Mr. Shabat, who said he had been completing a master’s degree in law at Palestine University before the war. “Areas previously officially declared as safe zones are now the complete opposite.”

In recent weeks, he said, people had moved to sleeping inside classrooms rather than in the open air, believing that would offer a degree of protection against shrapnel in the event of a strike. As a result, he said, classrooms are becoming more crowded.

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