Israel Criticized for New Deaths as Cease-Fire Looms in Gaza

EXCERPT~

In Beit Lahiya, some 1,600 displaced Gazans have taken shelter at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or Unrwa, which cares for Palestinian refugees from the 1948-49 war and their descendants.

John Ging, the Gaza director of the agency, said that two brothers, ages 5 and 7, were killed about 7 a.m. by Israeli fire at the school. Their mother, who was among 14 others wounded, had her legs blown off.

“These two little boys are as innocent, indisputably, as they are dead,” Mr. Ging said. “The question now being asked is: is this and the killing of all other innocent civilians in Gaza a war crime?”

Christopher Gunness, the refugee agency spokesman, said: “Where you have a direct hit on an Unrwa school where about 1,600 people had taken refuge, where the Israeli Army knows the coordinates and knows who’s there, where this comes as the latest in a catalog of direct and indirect attacks on Unrwa facilities, there have to be investigations to establish whether war crimes have been committed.”

The strike was the fourth time Israel has hit an Unrwa school during the 22-day war on Hamas. On Jan. 6, according to Mr. Ging, 43 people were killed by an Israeli shell that hit a school compound in Jabaliya. Israel has disputed the death toll and said it was returning mortar fire from within the school compound.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/world/middleeast/18mideast.html?_r=1&ref=world

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