ANKARA

Tel Aviv’s “indiscriminate attacks” on Palestinian children and women are “clearly Israeli war crimes,” said the head of a Norwegian non-governmental organization. 

“It is obscene to continue waging war through refugee camps,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on X.

“Even if Hamas committed the war crime of hiding fighters among displaced civilians, these continued, indiscriminate attacks killing scores of children and women are clearly Israeli war crimes,” he added.

His comments came after at least 39 displaced Palestinians were killed on Thursday in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering thousands of displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the central Gaza Strip, according to Gaza authorities.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.