UK's top diplomat calls for immediate cease-fire in Gaza after Israeli attacks on schools housing IDPs

LONDON

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Wednesday expressed concern over recent reports of civilian casualties in Israeli strikes on schools housing displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on X, Lammy described the situation as "appalling" and underscored the urgent need for measures to protect civilians amid ongoing Israeli forces attacks on Gaza.

"The devastating violence in Gaza has gone on far too long and we want to see urgent measures to protect civilians, an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages," Lammy said.

On Tuesday, at least 25 people were killed and 53 others injured in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Abasan town, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

It came days after another Israeli attack on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on July 6, which killed at least 16 people and injured dozens.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 38,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 88,200 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military 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.