Shells kill 15 seeking shelter at UN school
Witness says civilians were about to board buses when deadly Gaza attack occurred
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —Books, blankets, cushions and other belongings were scattered about the school courtyard. A large scorch mark in the compound marked the apparent site of impact of tank shells. A sandal with a yellow flower lay beside a puddle of blood, and sheep and a horse that had belonged to those seeking shelter grazed nearby.
The items belonged to dozens of people who had been in the school, run by the UN, seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside as Israel pressed forward with its 17day war against Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s rulers.
Israeli tank shells hit the compound on Thursday. At least 15 people were killed and dozens wounded. The UN said the strike occurred as staff members were trying to arrange a humanitarian pause in the hostilities so they could move the civilians from the compound in the northern town of Beit Hanoun. The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident and suggested Hamas rockets may have been to blame, although it offered no proof.
Kamel al-Kafarne, who was in the school, said the UN was putting people on buses when three tank shells hit.
“We were about to get out of the school, then they hit the school,” he said. “They kept on shelling it.”
Dozens of people, including children, were wheeled into a nearby hospital. It was the fourth time a UN facility has been hit in fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since the conflict began July 8. UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, has said it has found militant rockets inside two vacant schools.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli shells had hit the compound. The Israeli military said Hamas had launched rockets that fell in the area that could have been responsible for the deaths.
“We can’t confirm that this is a result of errant fire. In any case, we do not target UN facilities,” military spokesman Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner said. Lerner said the military had urged the UN and the Red Cross to evacuate the school for three days leading up to the incident.
The UN said it was trying to do just that when the school was hit. Chris Gunness, an agency spokesman, said the UN had asked the Israeli military for a lull in fighting to allow for the school’s evacuation but did not hear back.
UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said UN staff were among the casualties and demanded that Israel and Hamas abide by international humanitarian law, respect “the sanctity of civilian life, the inviolability of UN premises” and protect humanitarian workers.
Israel insists it does its utmost to prevent civilian casualties but says Hamas puts Palestinians in danger by hiding arms and fighters in civilian areas. A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, said Israel was targeting displaced people and “committing massacres.”
I n other developments Thursday:
Dozens of other people were killed throughout the coastal territory, raising the Palestinian death toll in the conflict to at least 799, a Gaza health official said. Israel has lost 32 soldiers, all since July 17, when it widened its air campaign into a full-scale ground operation. Two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker in Israel have also been killed by rocket or mortar fire.
The international community stepped up diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire. But Hamas is insisting on the lifting of the sevenyear-old blockade of Gaza, which was imposed when the group seized control of the area from the western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel says the war is meant to halt rocket fire from Palestinian militants in Gaza and destroy a network of cross-border tunnels. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spent the day in Cairo calling on regional leaders to help push Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.
Six members of the same family and an 18-month-old boy were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the Jebaliya refugee camp early Thursday, according to Gaza police and health officials. Another airstrike on a home in the southern Gaza town of Abassan killed five members of another family, a Gaza health official said.