Advocates urge Washington to stop sending weapons to Israel after attack kills more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza City
\n Gaza City
\nA deadly Israeli attack on a school in Gaza has renewed calls for the United States to stop providing staunch support for Israel, including weapons transfers that rights advocates say are fuelling atrocities in the Palestinian enclave.
\nThe Gaza civil defence agency said more than 100 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were injured on Saturday when Israel launched an attack on al-Tabin school in Gaza City.
\n\u201cThe US & allies are claiming a ceasefire is near. But all Palestinians see is more death, dislocation, & despair. The genocide continues,\u201d James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, wrote on social media.
\n\u201cIt past time to end the charade. Israel doesn\u2019t want peace or a ceasefire. Why are we still sending Israel weapons?\u201d
\nOn Saturday morning, CNN journalist Allegra Goodwin said in a post on X that the US news network had confirmed a \u201cUS-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb\u201d was used in the deadly Israeli attack on al-Tabin school. Al Jazeera could not immediately verify that report.
\nThe attack comes as US President Joe Biden has faced months of public pressure to cut off the supply of weapons to Israel amid its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 39,700 Palestinians since early October.
\nIsrael receives at least $3.8bn in US military assistance annually, and Biden signed off on $14bn in additional aid to the US ally earlier this year.
\nRights groups also have documented Israel\u2019s use of US-made weapons \u201cin serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner that is inconsistent with US law and policy\u201d during the war.
\nBut a US Department of State spokesperson announced on Friday that Washington would send an additional $3.5bn to Israel to spend on US-made weapons and military equipment.
\n\u2018Ripped to pieces\u2019
\nThe assault on the Gaza City school, which had served as a shelter for thousands of displaced people, also comes amid a renewed push by the US, Qatar and Egypt to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire agreement.
\nBut experts have said continued Israeli attacks across Gaza risk derailing those efforts, with some accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to sabotage any possible deal to end the war.
\nThe Gaza City school attack was described by paramedics and others at the scene as horrific, with \u201cbodies ripped to pieces\u201d.
\nAl Jazeera\u2019s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said Palestinians sheltering inside the school compound were praying when Israeli forces targeted them with at least three air attacks.
\n\u201cThe civil defence team said that they were able to find 100 dead bodies, but they\u2019re saying that there are more bodies still trapped. Most of the bodies are so disfigured, they\u2019re unable to recognise who these Palestinians are,\u201d Khoudary said.
\n\u201cPeople who survived this attack are saying that this is one of the worst days they witnessed since the war started in the Gaza Strip.\u201d
\nIsrael has said, without any evidence, that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters were operating from the school \u2013 a claim that was rejected by Hamas.
\nUS National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement on Saturday that \u201cfar too many civilians continue to be killed and wounded\u201d and called for a ceasefire and a hostage deal.
\nEchoing Israel\u2019s claims without providing evidence, he added: \u201cWe know Hamas has been using schools as locations to gather and operate out of, but we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimise civilian harm.\u201d
\n\u2018No more bomb shipments\u2019
\nMeanwhile, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the US to end its \u201cblind support [for Israel] that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly\u201d.
\nNabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement that US weapons transfers to Israel made it \u201cdirectly responsible for this massacre [at al-Tabin school] and for the continuation of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip for the tenth month running\u201d, as reported by the Wafa news agency.
\nUS rights advocates also renewed their push for the Biden administration to end its arms transfers to Israel following the school attack.
\nSarah Leah Whitson, executive director of US-based advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now, criticised the arms sales as \u201cPavlovian conditioning for a feral army\u201d.
\nThe Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a US-Muslim civil rights organisation, also said the Gaza City attack merits a serious response from the Biden administration.
\n\u201cIf President Biden gives a damn about human life, he will respond to this act of state terrorism by immediately stopping the flow of weapons to the Israeli government and forcing Netanyahu to agree to the ceasefire deal that he keeps sabotaging,\u201d CAIR wrote on X.
\n\u201cNo more calls for Israel to investigate itself. No more bomb shipments. This US-enabled genocide must end now.\u201d
\nFormer Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy also told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the $3.5bn US military finance package for Israel showed the \u201cdishonesty and duplicity of the US administration\u201d.
\nLevy said Washington showed \u201chumiliating weakness\u201d when it stated that Biden \u201cgot really angry\u201d in a recent call with Netanyahu, but then handed the Israeli prime minister another $3.5bn in funding for weapons.
\n\u201cWe have to see that it\u2019s not just weakness. It\u2019s also ideological alignment. The US government is the guarantor of the axis of Zionist extremism,\u201d Levy said. \u201cThey may not like some of the details, but this is what they are backing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Advocates urge Washington to stop sending weapons to Israel after attack kills more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza City Gaza City A deadly Israeli attack on a school in Gaza has renewed calls for the United States to stop providing staunch support for Israel, including weapons transfers that rights advocates say are fuelling atrocities in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-424303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n