Gaza demands UNRWA Director to apologize following offensive remarks

Gaza (QNN)- Several national factions and institutions condemned remarks by Matthias Schmale, UNRWA’s Director of Operations in Gaza, claiming that the Israeli strikes on Gaza, which killed over 200 civilians, were “precise”.

During an interview on the Israeli 12 channel, Schmale claimed that despite the hundreds of civilian victims, he has an impression that the airstrikes of the Israeli army were “precise”.

He also claimed that the overcrowded enclave, which has been besieged for 15 years so far by the ‘Israel’, does not suffer from any shortage of medical equipment or food and water.

In the same vein, Hamas movement rejected Schmale’s remarks, while “he was talking like a spokesperson for the Israeli army”, according to a statement by the resistance movement.

Hamas added that Schmale was justifying slaughtering civilians and bombing their houses and praised the Israeli army.

“We remind Mr. Schmale, UNRWA’s Director of Operations, that his main role is to protect and relieve refugees, not to justify attacking them, murdering their children, and bombing their houses”, the statement said.

“We also remind him that during this war only, we lost over 250 martyrs, including 66 children and 39 women, not mentioning nearly 2000 injuries most of them are children and women. Thousands of houses were bombed on the heads of their owners, while hundreds of medical, educational, and social institutions were targeted”, it added.

Hamas demanded an official apology to “our people and all victims of the aggression over this direct incitement against them, their houses, and properties”.

Meanwhile, a joint statement by local organizations and the Council of Palestinian Human Rights organizations, rejected Schmale’s remarks, stressing that he neglected the Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians during the latest aggression on Gaza, including refugees, who make nearly 70% of Gaza’s population.

The statement added that in the Shate’ refugee camp, Israeli jets killed nine refugees, including 7 children and two women. Israeli jets threw six bombs without warning civilians, bombing a 3-story building owned by the Abu Hatab family. Only a father and his 5-month old baby survived the Israeli strike.

“According to our observations, which are consistent with observations made by other Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organizations, Israeli forces have systematically targeted civilians and civilian areas as well as buildings and infrastructure, ignoring the basic rules of the humanitarian and international law”, the statement said.

“The goal of the strikes was not to achieve any military gains or defeat the factions of the Palestinian resistance, rather [Israel] only aimed at punishing and terrifying civilians in Gaza, just like it has been doing for 14 years of illegal and inhumane siege, through which they carried out three bloody and destructive wars”.