UN call renews push for Gaza truce

Israel denies responsibility for deaths in school attack

JERUSALEM— Israel and Hamas went back and forth Sunday over proposals for a new ceasefire in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, and Israel sought to bolster its claim that its forces were not responsible for the deaths of16 Palestinians reportedly killed in an attack on a UN school.

The UN Security Council agreed on a statement calling for “an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire” in the three-week conflict, scheduling a meeting at midnight to adopt it.

The council was meeting as Muslims began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

The push for a ceasefire followed new attacks by Israel and Hamas on Sunday.

The UN statement, obtained by The Associated Press, said the humanitarian ceasefire would allow for the delivery of urgently needed assistance.

It urged Israel and Hamas “to accept and fully implement the humanitarian ceasefire into the Eid period and beyond,” also calling on the parties “to engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected ceasefire, based on the Egyptian initiative.”

Rwanda, the current council president, announced an agreement Sunday night on the presidential statement and the immediate meeting. It was drafted by Jordan, the Arab representative on the UN’s most powerful body.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and monitoring groups.

The ministry said that at least 10 people were killed by Israeli fire Sunday and that three more had died from injuries they had suffered. An Israeli reserve soldier was killed overnight by mortar fire from Gaza, according to the military, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the beginning of the Gaza campaign, on July 8, to 43. Three civilians in Israel have also been killed. Palestinians who brought their dead and wounded relatives to a Gaza hospital after the attack on a UN school last Thursday said that hundreds of people who sought shelter in the school had gathered in its courtyard, believing that buses were on the way to take them somewhere safer. Then a number of munitions fired by Israeli forces hit the school, they said, killing and wounding scores of people. The United Nations also reported the attack, but said it couldn’t confirm the source. On Sunday, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, acknowledged that an errant mortar round fired by Israeli troops had exploded in the school’s courtyard that afternoon but said the yard had been empty at the time. He provided a video with 10 seconds of black-andwhite footage shot by an Israeli drone that showed a blast in what appeared to be an empty courtyard. “It is extremely unlikely that anyone was killed as a result of that mortar,” Lerner said. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the two accounts.

Sunday afternoon, Hamas called for a new 24-hour ceasefire, citing Palestinians’ preparations for the holiday Eid al-Fitr

A visit to the school two days after the attack revealed a small crater in the courtyard, shrapnel scars on the walls and large spots of blood on the ground. Lerner said the mortar strike shown in the video was the only Israeli ordnance that hit the school that day. The video did not include a time code, but he said it was shot between 2 and 4 p.m. The UN said the attack took place at 2:55 p.m. Also on Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressed growing concerns about the rising death toll. He urged Israel to embrace an immediate humanitarian truce.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also continued the diplomatic push for a long-term ceasefire, even as Israel and Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, see-sawed on whether to call a new stop to fighting.

Early Sunday, Israel said its military was resuming its offensive in Gaza because of rocket fire by Hamas during what was supposed to have been a ceasefire from midnight Saturday until midnight Sunday. Huge clouds of smoke from explosions could be seen rising from the eastern neighbourhoods of Gaza City near the border with Israel.

But by afternoon, Hamas had called for a new 24-hour pause, saying it was responding to the request from the UN and citing Palestinians’ preparations for Eid al-Fitr.

There was no immediate response from Israel, but fighting appeared to slow around Gaza in the evening. The Israeli military said it bombed 40 sites and targeted six militants Sunday, while Gaza fighters fired scores of rockets into Israel.