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| Airstrike Hits School Sheltering Gaza Civilians | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| GAZA CITY — An apparent Israeli strike Thursday afternoon on a school sheltering Gaza residents who evacuated their homes killed and injured “multiple” people, according to the local director of the United Nations agency that is operating the shelter. | |
| The Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza said that 10 people had been killed and that “a large number” had been wounded at the school in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. | |
| A spokesman for the Israeli military had no immediate information about the event and said he was looking into the matter. | |
| This was the third time that shelters set up in schools have been struck during the current conflict. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is helping Palestinians displaced by the conflict, saids that more than 140,000 residents of Gaza were now staying in 83 schools where it runs shelters. | |
| “We’re extremely concerned now that if this trend continues we will see a mass casualty event,” said Robert Turner, the director of Gaza operations for the U.N. agency, citing two incidents from the Gaza conflict in 2008-9, where eight people were killed when a shelter was hit, and 40 people were killed in a separate strike outside a school. | |
| “It would take just one errant shell into one of these institutions to have major casualties,” Mr. Turner said “They are packed and the people came there specifically seeking refuge because they feel safer in a U.N. installation.” | |
| Mr. Turner said he had few details about the latest strike in Beit Hanoun, because when he went to investigate, “we got a hostile reception.” | |
| On Wednesday morning, Mr. Turner said, a school with 2,000 people in it in Deir el Balah in the center of this coastal territory was struck by what suspected was a drone. On Tuesday, a boy was injured by an artillery shell at a school in the Mughazi refugee camp, and when United Nations workers went in to investigate — after being told by Israeli authorities they had a two-hour window in which it would be safe to operate — there was more shelling, Mr. Turner said, though no one was injured. | |
| “We’re concerned that these messages are either not being passed, or if they are being passed they are not being implemented as we would like,” he said of coordination between the Israelis charged with civilian protection and the military. “We’re not questioning the good will and hard work of the people” working with the United Nations, he added, “but we’re concerned about coordination and translation into action on the ground.” | |
| Israeli officials have said schools are among the places where militants store and launch rockets. Twice during this conflict rockets have been discovered at U.N.W.R.A. shelters at schools. Some Israelis have complained that the U.N. agency personnel turned the rockets over to the security services affiliated with Hamas. | |
| Mr. Turner acknowledged that the U.N. personnel employees did give the rockets to the Hamas-controlled interior ministry, but he said there is no one else to call. | |
| With international efforts to broker a cease-fire still ineffective, fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants continued Thursday, with more rockets launched from Gaza deep into Israel. The Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks rose to more than 700, many of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza. | |
| The ministry said that at least 25 people were believed dead in the village of Khuza’a, where it said two-thirds of the homes have been destroyed and 60 percent of the population has fled. In the neighboring villages of Abasan and Bani Suheila it said 17 people have been killed. | |
| The northern area of the Gaza Strip around Jabaliya also appeared to be a focus of Israeli strikes overnight. A mosque was destroyed and a residential building was flattened. Residents said that seven people were killed there, at least three of them children. | |
| The Israeli military said that two rocket barrages were fired from Gaza in the morning and about five were intercepted over the Tel Aviv area by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system. Some shrapnel fell in Tel Aviv but there were no reports of serious injuries. | The Israeli military said that two rocket barrages were fired from Gaza in the morning and about five were intercepted over the Tel Aviv area by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system. Some shrapnel fell in Tel Aviv but there were no reports of serious injuries. |
| During a visit to Israel, the new British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, laid the blame squarely on Hamas for triggering the current round of violence by “firing hundreds of rockets at Israeli towns and cities indiscriminately and in breach of international humanitarian law.” | During a visit to Israel, the new British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, laid the blame squarely on Hamas for triggering the current round of violence by “firing hundreds of rockets at Israeli towns and cities indiscriminately and in breach of international humanitarian law.” |
| But in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel Mr. Hammond also said Britain was “gravely concerned by the ongoing heavy level of casualties” and called for a quick agreement on a cease-fire. | But in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel Mr. Hammond also said Britain was “gravely concerned by the ongoing heavy level of casualties” and called for a quick agreement on a cease-fire. |
| Mr. Netanyahu said, “The terrorists are firing rockets from schools, from mosques, from hospitals, from heavily civilian populations and we have to try and are doing our best to minimize civilian casualties. But we cannot give our attackers immunity or impunity,” he added. | Mr. Netanyahu said, “The terrorists are firing rockets from schools, from mosques, from hospitals, from heavily civilian populations and we have to try and are doing our best to minimize civilian casualties. But we cannot give our attackers immunity or impunity,” he added. |
| Mr. Netanyahu also told Mr. Hammond that Israel was grateful that British Airways has continued to fly to Israel over the last few days, as most European carriers have suspended service to Israel in recent days because of the danger from rocket fire. | Mr. Netanyahu also told Mr. Hammond that Israel was grateful that British Airways has continued to fly to Israel over the last few days, as most European carriers have suspended service to Israel in recent days because of the danger from rocket fire. |
| At least 32 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the fighting began and three civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire in Israel. | At least 32 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the fighting began and three civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire in Israel. |