Israel Hits UN School, Nears Major Gaza Towns

Source: AP

GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) — Israeli forces edged closer to Gaza's major population centers on Tuesday and attacked new sites, including a U.N. school, claiming more civilian lives after ignoring mounting international calls for an immediate cease-fire. A Palestinian rocket attack wounded an Israeli infant.

The United Nations said three civilians were killed in the airstrike late Monday on the courtyard of its school, where hundreds of people from a Gaza City refugee camp had sought shelter from Israel's blistering 11-day offensive against the Hamas militant group.

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," said John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza.

Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 to halt repeated Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns. After a weeklong air campaign, Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza over the weekend. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 100 civilians, according to United Nations figures. Nine Israelis have died since the operation began.

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

more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HM3S02

Date: 06 / 01 / 2009 Time: 14:17



Bethlehem – Ma’an – Three Palestinians were killed overnight in an Israeli attack on a United Nations school that was housing people displaced by the violence in Gaza, the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday.

In a statement circulated on Tuesday, UNRWA said that Israeli forces attacked the Asma Elementary School in Gaza City, which is currently sheltering 400 people who fled their homes in the town of Beit Lahiy.

The school was clearly marked as a United Nations installation. The three men, 24-year-old Hussein Mahmoud Abed Al Malek Al Sultan, 19-year-old Abed Samir Ali Al Sultan, and 25-year-old Rawhi Jamal Ramadan Al Sultan, were killed at 11:30 last night. The three men, all from the same family, were killed as they left the school toilet at eleven thirty last night when the school compound took a direct hit.

The director of the UN general commissioner’s office in Gaza Adnan Abu Hasanah said that another UN facility, the Ash-Shouka School in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, was also bombarded. At this time there were no details available about the civilians who had taken shelter in the school.

UNRWA is strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities and is calling for an immediate and impartial investigation.
“Where it is found that international humanitarian law has been violated, those responsible must be held to account,” UNRWA said.

Well before the current fighting, UNRWA said it had given to the Israeli authorities the GPS co-ordinates of all its installations in Gaza, including Asma Elementary School.


http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34665

Inexcusable. And the silence of American politicians is shameful

We must not be silenced about the atrocities happening there.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli air strike outside a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip has risen to 30.

Officials say the attack occurred about 10 metres outside the school in northern Gaza. It was the second deadly Israeli attack near a UN school in the just a few hours.

In both cases, the schools had been used as shelters for people displaced by Israel's offensive against Hamas.

A top UN humanitarian official has condemned the violence and demanded an investigation.

More than 500 people have been killed in the 11-day Israeli offensive, including many civilians.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hNN29AVuI3yQwK5rR8NyEeloHecw

THERE IS NO PLACE A CIVILIAN CAN RUN!

WHAT'S THE POINT OF A WARNING? To assuage the guilty conscience of the perpetrators?

The infantrymen returned mortar shell fire into the school grounds, the army said. Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053138.html

Sorry to say I believe the UN over JPost/Haaretz because they get their information from the IDF and the Defense Ministry.

From http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053455.html">Haaretz



Now, you might say what happened outside the school isn't relevent. However, a couple of hours ago I heard a radio interview with one of the UNWRA officials in Gaza (I didn't catch his name, I think it was Anaan), who had been to the school after the Israeli attack - and according to him (since this was on the radio, I don't have a cite, but I expect this will be reported in text later) the school itself - contrary to news reports - wasn,t hit, but rather all the dead were outside of it.

There will be no peace. Ever. I hope Israel is prepared for the state of constant warfare it has chosen.

If left to the people, there would not a single Arab capital in which Israeli diplomats would be welcome.

I used to believe that one day there could be peace and amicable relations, but I no longer believe that will ever be a possibility.

but the Palestinians chose violence and terrorism, time and time again.

Wars, intifadas, all with the belief that they could drive out Israel and take over the whole country.

Hamas still believes that.

I decry the current violence, but let's not pretend that the Arab countries, with their anti-Israel, virulent anti-semitism, with the way they use the Palestinians as political pawns, cares about a peaceful outcome anyway.

From November 2007:

Jerusalem/New York - Israel has complained to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over the use of a school run by the organization as a launching pad for a mortar attack on Israel, the Jerusalem Post daily reported Thursday.

Colonel Nir Press, the head of the army's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, met with UNRWA Gaza chief John Ging to ask how the militants had managed to enter the school in Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Strip, in the middle of the day last week to fire the mortars.

Ging replied they had threatened the life of the guard at the entrance to the school.

'UNRWA condemns the use of its facilities by militants, not least because these militant activities put the lives of schoolchildren and our teachers at risk and also disrupt our education programme,' UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness told the Israeli newspaper.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1372119.php/Israel_complains_to_UNRWA_after_mortars_fired_from_Gaza_school

that people were told to use as a refuge is a military target? Why would the IDF tell people to go shelter in a military target?

An IDF spokesman said that troops had fired mortar rounds at the school, after militants barricaded inside shot mortar shells at the Israeli forces.

"Initial checks ... show that from inside the school mortars were fired at Israeli forces," a spokesman said. "In response, the forces fired a number of mortar rounds into the area."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053138.html

Oops, not a real headline.

They use people as pawns and kill them callously. Israeli forces would not have received mortars from those building if they weren't invading the cities.

putting themselves within range of the armed government of Gaza. What do they expect?

especially if it's about some criminals who forced their way into a school 13 months ago.

ENOUGH!!

investigation findings, according to Richard Silverstein.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/01/07/idf-false-claim-militants-fired-from-gaza-un-school/