The deadly airstrike on displaced Palestinians was self-defense from Hamas, Berlin has said
The IDF airstrike on the Tabeen school in Gaza that reportedly killed 100 Palestinians was legitimate self-defense because Hamas uses civilians as human shields, the German government has said.
Saturday’s attack on the facility, which served as a shelter for displaced persons, has been described as the deadliest since the start of the current conflict.
“Israel has the right to defend itself. The reality is that Hamas uses schools, hospitals and kindergartens as command centers and that the people in the Gaza Strip are also abused against their will as protective shields,” Wolfgang Buechner, deputy spokesman for the German government, told reporters in Berlin on Monday.
Buechner also urged journalists to “be very careful about sitting on one-sided reports that are distributed by Hamas and believing everything that is spread by this side.”
The airstrike on Saturday morning came during the pre-dawn prayers. The Gaza health ministry initially reported 60 dead and 47 wounded. Al Jazeera later reported more than 100 deaths and “dozens” of people injured.
“In the hellish aftermath, body parts were strewn around the rubble and charred, bloodied bodies slumped in the wreckage of the two-story complex,” according to Agence France-Presse.
