Report About the School for the Blind in Gaza
Editors note:
(ICEVI has had many inquiries from our colleagues around the worl regarding the widely reported damages to the school for the blind in Gaza. Our regional chairperson for the Middle East has asked us to share the following with our readers.)
The Al-Nour Rehabilitation Centre for the Visually Impaired, the only institution of its kind in the Gaza Strip, has been extensively damaged by flying debris and the explosive force of the air raid. At least 15 classrooms have been put out of action, dozens of windows have been ripped from their frames and a children’s playground and garden has been turned from an oasis of calm into a wasteland of twisted metal and rubble. Heavy pieces of shrapnel blew though the windows of the school and in one case landed in the kindergarten used during the day by four and five year olds with sight problems.
The school for the blind, which in November was presented with the Sharjah Award for Excellence for its innovative treatment of children with special needs, has been damaged on five other occasions by Israeli bombing raids on the Gaza police headquarters building which sits adjacent to the site. The latest raid, which targeted the empty shell of the police headquarters, has now damaged around half of the classrooms in the school.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (which is in charge of Al-Nour Center) has protested in the strongest possible terms to the Israeli Government at the damage done to its award-winning school for the blind in Gaza City by a F16 bombing raid on the night of March 5th, 2002.
Mr Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner General said: "The only thing that could have been damaged by such a raid was the blind school because the police headquarters had already been hit five times. We will protest this action to the Israeli authorities in the strongest possible terms and will ask to be reimbursed for the damage. UNRWA has to work with limited resources and the repairs we have to make to the school should not mean less food aid or fewer work programmes for the poor of Gaza. Under the terms of international conventions Israel has a duty to safeguard UN installations and personnel. Such bombing raids in heavily populated civilian areas, next to a school flying a UN flag that is brightly lit at night, are totally unacceptable."
The Al-Nour Centre was extensively re-built in 1996 thanks to a grant from the Government of Japan. This enabled the school to build an outreach programme for the visually impaired throughout Gaza in addition to the 160 pupils who receive lessons in the building daily. Christoffel Blindenmission is one of the main sponsors to the project.
Nowadays, the security escalation has created a new state of danger and fear to the extent that the parents express their fear of sending their children to a place where hazard may appear suddenly. Moreover, the teachers and the staff feel insecure as well.
Abdul M. Abu Jarbou
Chairperson ICEVI Middle East Region