48 killed in UN-run school inside Gaza

zoom

A Palestinian man carries a wounded girl into hospital following an Israeli army strike at a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp. (Getty)

Israeli tanks and troops blazed into towns across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in the bloodiest day yet of the ongoing conflict.

Among the casualties were at least 48 people seeking shelter at three UN-run schools.

While troops battled Islamist militants along the back alleys of Gaza's main city in the heaviest fighting of the 11-day-old offensive to halt cross-border rocket attacks, Hamas still made its deepest rocket strike yet into Israel.

As the Palestinian death toll hit 660, Arab nations pressed for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the onslaught, but Israel rejected ceasefire calls by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leaders.

The United Nations demanded an investigation after tank and air assaults hit three schools run by the UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA. At least 43 people who had taken shelter at the Jabaliya refugee camp school in northern Gaza were killed, according to emergency servics.

The United Nations confirmed at least 30 dead and 55 wounded after the tank shells hit. The Israeli military said a preliminary inquiry indicated that a number of mortar rounds may have been fired from the Jabaliya school.

Earlier two people were killed when an artillery shell slammed into a school in the southern city of Khan Yunis. Three people also died in an air strike on another school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, medics said.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories Maxwell Gaylard said Israel had the GPS coordinates of all UN buildings in Gaza -- including schools. "Neither homes nor UN shelters are safe" for civilians , he said in a statement which reaffirmed UN ceasefire calls.

He called for an investigation "and if international humanitarian law has been contravened, those responsible must be held accountable."

Heavy fighting raged in Gaza City and around nearby Deir al-Balah and Bureij. One air raid killed 12 people, including seven children, from the same family in Gaza City. Tanks supported by helicopter gunships rolled into Khan Yunis before dawn, to be met by return fire from Hamas and its allies, witnesses said.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed in two friendly fire incidents during the overnight surge in fighting, the army said. Five have now died since Saturday. The military said another soldier was killed in a clash near the territory's main city.
It also said that paratroopers shot at the belt of a suicide bomber running towards them to detonate his bomb.
About 35 Hamas rockets were fired over the border, one landing 45 kilometres (28 miles) inside Israel -- the deepest yet -- slightly wounding a baby, it said.

Three civilians and one soldier have been killed by rocket fire inside Israel since the offensive began.

Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on Hamas on December 27 with a massive air bombardment of Gaza, and sent in thousands of ground troops a week later.

Since then, 660 Palestinians have been killed, including about 200 children , with more than 2,950 wounded, Gaza medics say.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM