Airstrikes Kill 30 in Gaza, Including 10 at UN School
by Scott Bobb, VOA News
Israeli airstrikes into Gaza continued Sunday, killing at least 30 people.
At least 10 people were killed and another 35 injured at a United Nations school sheltering displaced people in Gaza in what a U.N. official said appeared to be an Israeli airstrike.
Witnesses said the explosion at the Rafah school, which housed 3,000 displaced Palestinians, occurred as people were waiting in line for food. In the chaotic aftermath, several bodies, including those of children, were strewn across the ground in pools of blood.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported attack, the second to hit a school in less than a week.
Last Wednesday, at least 15 Palestinians who sought refuge in a U.N.-run school in Jabalya refugee camp were killed during fighting, and the U.N. said it appeared that Israeli artillery had hit the building. The Israeli military said gunmen had fired mortar bombs from near the school and it shot back in response.
Hospitals struggle with injured
Hospitals in Gaza on Sunday struggled to cope with a new influx of wounded from Israeli airstrikes in recent days.
Palestinian officials said 1,766 people had been killed in the fighting, most of whom were civilians, and nearly 10,000 wounded.
Israel said 64 of its troops had been killed, including a soldier who was thought at first to have been kidnapped by Hamas fighters. That incident Friday broke a short-lived cease-fire and brought renewed fighting in which 180 people reportedly have died.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday the ground operation to destroy infiltration tunnels into Israel was nearly ended.
More than 30 tunnels and dozens of access shafts have been unearthed and were being blown up, military officials said.
Israel expected to complete its mission to eliminate tunnels “probably within the next 24 hours or so,” military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said.
Netanyahu said Israeli Defense Forces would continue to work until the tunnels are destroyed. And he added the forces were prepared to continue operating according to Israel's defense needs until security is restored to Israel.
Some Israeli ground troops on Sunday were seen leaving Gaza and re-deploying along the boundary with the territory.
Redeployment of Israeli troops
Lerner stopped short of calling the move a withdrawal, but said residents from some evacuated Palestinian neighborhoods had been told by the army they could return.
“The troops are in the midst of a redeployment to other parts of the border,” Lerner said. “Indeed we are releasing troops from the front line but the mission is ongoing. Ground forces are operating. Air forces are operating.”
A few Palestinians returned to their homes on Sunday but mostly to recover personal property and inspect their homes.
Eman al-Kahlot, whose extended family of 18 had taken refuge in the U.N.-run Remal Primary School in Gaza, said they would not be going home.
Kahlot said her family does not believe what Israel says because yesterday a family returned. The Israelis bombarded and they died. So we don't believe them, she said, because they always say one thing and do something else.
She said her family would return home only if there was a real cease-fire.
In Rafah, Fatah faction leader and local resident Ashraf Goma said Israeli forces were bombarding the town from air, ground and sea and locals were unable to deal with the wounded and the dead.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that so far on Sunday at least 13 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel. One was intercepted by Israel's anti-missile system and the rest landed in open areas.
Cease-fire terms
Israel is demanding the de-militarization of Gaza as part of any cease-fire accord. Hamas said it will keep on fighting until the seven-year Israeli blockade of Gaza is lifted.
Meanwhile, delegations from the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have arrived in Cairo on Sunday to discuss a cease-fire proposal. The talks are being conducted by Egyptian and U.S. officials.
But Israel said its delegation would not go, because it did not trust any agreement with Hamas.
Netanyahu said Saturday that hundreds of Hamas militants have been killed since Israel launched its ground and air operations almost a month ago. Netanyahu warned that Hamas would pay an "intolerable" price if it failed to stop rocket attacks on Israel.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel has nothing against the "peaceful citizens of Gaza." He said he was very sorry for each civilian killed or wounded.
Netanyahu said Gaza's dominant Hamas faction bears ultimate responsibility for civilian casualties, accusing gunmen and rocket-launching squads of using residents in densely populated areas as “human shields.”
He also encouraged international support to help rebuild Gaza.
The United Nations said 460,000 people had been displaced by the fighting - nearly a quarter of Gaza's population.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, AP and AFP.
http://www.voanews.com/content/seven-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-un-school/1970523.html
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| A United Nations school bombed in Gaza on July 24, 2014. |
Israeli airstrikes into Gaza continued Sunday, killing at least 30 people.
At least 10 people were killed and another 35 injured at a United Nations school sheltering displaced people in Gaza in what a U.N. official said appeared to be an Israeli airstrike.
Witnesses said the explosion at the Rafah school, which housed 3,000 displaced Palestinians, occurred as people were waiting in line for food. In the chaotic aftermath, several bodies, including those of children, were strewn across the ground in pools of blood.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported attack, the second to hit a school in less than a week.
Last Wednesday, at least 15 Palestinians who sought refuge in a U.N.-run school in Jabalya refugee camp were killed during fighting, and the U.N. said it appeared that Israeli artillery had hit the building. The Israeli military said gunmen had fired mortar bombs from near the school and it shot back in response.
Hospitals struggle with injured
Hospitals in Gaza on Sunday struggled to cope with a new influx of wounded from Israeli airstrikes in recent days.
Palestinian officials said 1,766 people had been killed in the fighting, most of whom were civilians, and nearly 10,000 wounded.
Israel said 64 of its troops had been killed, including a soldier who was thought at first to have been kidnapped by Hamas fighters. That incident Friday broke a short-lived cease-fire and brought renewed fighting in which 180 people reportedly have died.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday the ground operation to destroy infiltration tunnels into Israel was nearly ended.
More than 30 tunnels and dozens of access shafts have been unearthed and were being blown up, military officials said.
Israel expected to complete its mission to eliminate tunnels “probably within the next 24 hours or so,” military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said.
Netanyahu said Israeli Defense Forces would continue to work until the tunnels are destroyed. And he added the forces were prepared to continue operating according to Israel's defense needs until security is restored to Israel.
Some Israeli ground troops on Sunday were seen leaving Gaza and re-deploying along the boundary with the territory.
Redeployment of Israeli troops
Lerner stopped short of calling the move a withdrawal, but said residents from some evacuated Palestinian neighborhoods had been told by the army they could return.
“The troops are in the midst of a redeployment to other parts of the border,” Lerner said. “Indeed we are releasing troops from the front line but the mission is ongoing. Ground forces are operating. Air forces are operating.”
A few Palestinians returned to their homes on Sunday but mostly to recover personal property and inspect their homes.
Eman al-Kahlot, whose extended family of 18 had taken refuge in the U.N.-run Remal Primary School in Gaza, said they would not be going home.
Kahlot said her family does not believe what Israel says because yesterday a family returned. The Israelis bombarded and they died. So we don't believe them, she said, because they always say one thing and do something else.
She said her family would return home only if there was a real cease-fire.
In Rafah, Fatah faction leader and local resident Ashraf Goma said Israeli forces were bombarding the town from air, ground and sea and locals were unable to deal with the wounded and the dead.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that so far on Sunday at least 13 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel. One was intercepted by Israel's anti-missile system and the rest landed in open areas.
Cease-fire terms
Israel is demanding the de-militarization of Gaza as part of any cease-fire accord. Hamas said it will keep on fighting until the seven-year Israeli blockade of Gaza is lifted.
Meanwhile, delegations from the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have arrived in Cairo on Sunday to discuss a cease-fire proposal. The talks are being conducted by Egyptian and U.S. officials.
But Israel said its delegation would not go, because it did not trust any agreement with Hamas.
Netanyahu said Saturday that hundreds of Hamas militants have been killed since Israel launched its ground and air operations almost a month ago. Netanyahu warned that Hamas would pay an "intolerable" price if it failed to stop rocket attacks on Israel.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel has nothing against the "peaceful citizens of Gaza." He said he was very sorry for each civilian killed or wounded.
Netanyahu said Gaza's dominant Hamas faction bears ultimate responsibility for civilian casualties, accusing gunmen and rocket-launching squads of using residents in densely populated areas as “human shields.”
He also encouraged international support to help rebuild Gaza.
The United Nations said 460,000 people had been displaced by the fighting - nearly a quarter of Gaza's population.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, AP and AFP.
http://www.voanews.com/content/seven-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-un-school/1970523.html
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