CAIRO: Two schoolchildren were shot and wounded by snipers at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Beit Lahia Elementary School in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to a press release issued by the agency.
Seven-year-old schoolboy Ahmed Isam Abdel-Aziz was struck by a bullet in the head while 12-year-old Rewa Khalid Al-Mabhouh was shot in her leg in their respective classrooms.
Both children were immediately rushed to the hospital for care. The UN schools in this area are often attacked by snipers. They are always recognized by their UN emblems and flags, which makes them easy targets, Rula Khalafawi from UNRWA s Cairo office says.
The press release said the shooting came from the north of the school were Israeli tanks are positioned. However, there has been no comment from the Israeli military.According to the UN agency, the bullets entered the school from the north, where Israeli tanks were seen stationed less than two kilometers away.
UNRWA’s Gaza Field Director John Ging immediately condemned the shootings and described them as “yet another tragic incident in what has become a bewildering cycle of violence.
Ging also calls for the implementation of an international mechanism to protect civilian populations. “At present, children are not safe even in United Nations classrooms. We urgently need a solution, he stresses.
We are pushing the media and press to shed more light on these sorts of incidents, which are awfully common these days. We call for an immediate investigation of Saturday s cruel shootings, Khalafawi emphasizes.
