TODAY ISRAEL SHELLED ANOTHER GAZA SCHOOL SHELTERING EVACUEES KILLING AT LEAST 20, INCLUDING CHILDREN AS THEY SLEPT NEXT TO PARENTS IN CLASSROOM, DOZENS MORE WOUNDED Israeli artillery shells slammed into a U.N.-run school sheltering evacuees from the Gaza conflict early Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens of others as they slept, according to Palestinian health officials and the U.N. agency in charge of the school. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which operated the school-turned-shelter in the territory’s Jabaliya refugee camp, said the facility was shelled by Israeli forces and condemned what it called a serious violation of international law. In a statement, UNRWA called the attack on the Jabaliya Primary School for Girls “a source of universal shame.” “Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a U.N.-designated shelter in Gaza,” the agency said. “We have visited the site and gathered evidence,” it added. “We have analyzed fragments, examined craters and other damage. Our initial assessment is that it was Israeli artillery that hit our school, in which 3,300 people had sought refuge.” . “These are people who were instructed to leave their homes by the Israeli army,” UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said in the statement. He said the school was apparently hit by at least three shells even though its precise location and that fact it was housing thousands of evacuees were communicated to the Israeli army 17 times, the last of which was just hours before the fatal shelling. Krahenbuhl urged the international community to “take deliberate international political action to put an immediate end to the continuing carnage.” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said it was the sixth time that one of the organization’s schools has been struck.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 15:06:22 +0000
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