Dozens dead after Israel bombs UN elementary school in Gaza

Azerbaijan News.Net
Tuesday 6th January, 2009

At least forty people have died and dozens more were wounded when the Israeli army targeted an elementary school in Jabalya in northern Gaza Tuesday.

The United Nations said hundreds of people had moved into the building to shelter themselves from the ongoing hostilities.

Majed Hamdan, a photographer with The Associated Press, rushed to the scene shortly after the attacks. At the hospital, he said, many children were among the dead.

"I saw women and men, parents, slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead," he said. "In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't enough space for the wounded."

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," John Ging, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said.

"I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this," he added, speaking at Gaza's largest hospital. "They are responsible for these deaths."

The Israeli army however said the school was being used to store weapons, and the casualties were as a result of secondary explosions caused by the the munitions stored in the building. After a brief investigation this story changed. The army did admit the Israel Air Force targeted the school, but said it was returning fire. It had no comment on the fact that several hundred refugees had taken shelter at the school.

"On Tuesday, following identified and repeated rocket and mortar launchings at Israeli territory, the Israel Air Force aircraft struck a school in Beit Hanoun. After an investigation that took place over the past hour, it was revealed that terror operatives from Hamas's military wing and a mortar battery cell, which were found in the school, were firing on Israeli army forces in the area. Hamas operatives Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar were amongst terrorists that were identified at the school," an army statement released late Tuesday night said.

Palestinian witnesses however told The Associated Press that while between two and four militants were firing rockets from nearby, they were not at the school, and had been separately shelled, after which they fled. The witnesses said the two miliants identified by the Israeli army as being at the school were brothers and were low ranking Hamas militants.

Tuesday's attack was the third on UN run schools in 36 hours. The United Nations has called for an independent investigation into all three strikes.

"We're demanding full accountability in accordance with international law and the duty of care that the parties to the conflict are obliged to adhere to," Ging said.

Earlier Tuesday, seven Palestinians were killed in several separate incidents. One young man was killed in an attack on a Hamas charity building, a 15-year-old was killed in an air force attack in the center of Gaza City and five Palestinians were killed when their house in the eastern part of Gaza City was shelled.

Palestinians told The Jerusalem Post nine members of the same family were killed in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza, 6 of them children. Three other people were reportedly killed in the strike. The Jerusalem Post said it could not independently confirm the Palestinian reports.

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