Gaza/Tel Aviv - An Israeli strike on a UN school killed at
least 46 Palestinian civilians Tuesday, in the deadliest single
incident since Israel launched its Gaza offensive, and which was
likely to increase international pressure for an end to the fighting.
It came only hours before the UN Security Council was scheduled to
debate a draft resolution by Arab member states, calling for an
immediate end to the Israeli offensive and for the protection of
civilians.
Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told reporters
that more than 150 were injured in the strike just outside the al-
Fakhoura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City.
Hundreds of civilians had been taking shelter from nearby fighting
in the camp's boys elementary school, run by the UN's agency for
Palestinian refugees (UNWRA).
The UN said three Israeli artillery shells fell next to the school.
The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.
Witnesses said the school was hit shortly after local militants
fired mortar shells from near the school at the Israeli tanks.
Most of those killed had been outside at the time the projectile
struck, but people inside were also injured by shrapnel.
Local Palestinian television showed bloodstains and shoes and
slippers scattered on the ground. Severely injured Palestinians could
also be seen being carried into Palestinian ambulances.
UNRWA staff said the shool was waving a blue UN flag and that the
agency had passed the GPS coordinates to Israel of its schools and
shelters in Gaza.
Even so, four UNWRA schools had been caught in the crossfire over
the past days. Another UNWRA school in Gaza City sheltering some 400
civilians was hit just overnight, with three Palestinians killed as
they used flashlights to go to the toilet.
Hassanein said the death toll in the Gaza Strip since the beginning
of the Israeli air and ground offensive on December 27 now topped 630,
while over 2,600 have been wounded. At least a quarter of the dead are
civilians, according to UN staff on the ground.
More than 80 Palestinians were killed Tuesday since midnight,
including at least 12 members of the same family, al-Daia, when Israel
shelled or rocketed their house their house in southern Gaza City's
Zaytoun neighbourhood.
Israeli ground troops, who entered Gaza on Saturday after a week of
relentless airstrikes, have encircled Gaza City - which faces the
Mediterranean on the west - from the south, east and north.
In addition to the outskirts of Jabaliya, a crowded camp considered
the hub of Palestinian rocket-launching squads, they are also on the
outskirts of Khan Younis in the south.
A Palestinian militant leader denied reports that the ground troops
had advanced into populated areas, saying they were still occupying
largely open areas.
But residents said local militants confronting those ground troops
have been launching anti-tank missiles and mortar shells at them from
behind and from the roofs of nearby civilian buildings.
When Israeli fighter jets or helicopter gunships then locate the
source of the fire and strike back, the militants have run away and
civilians are killed in their stead, they said.
Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, confirmed in a statement
sent to journalists that its militants were confronting the Israeli
soldiers with anti-tank missiles and mortar shells, as well as
roadside bombs, and 'face to face' exchanges of fire.
Six Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground fighting
started Saturday, three of them late Monday when an Israeli tank
erroneously shelled a house on the outskirts of Jabaliya, in which the
troops had taken cover. Another 24 Israeli soldiers were injured.
An Israeli military spokesman said the purpose of the ground
invasion was to arrest and question Hamas fighters, find and destroy
Hamas 'infrastructure' - rocket storage sites - and hold territory
from where militants have been launching rockets into Israel.
Soldiers have already detained and questioned dozens of suspected
militants, the military spokesman spokesman said.
Hamas nevertheless has for the time being succeeded in launching
more rockets into Israel, firing more than 40 Monday and at least
another 27 Tuesday by the late afternoon.
The Israeli town of Gedera, over 40 kilometres from the most
northern tip of Gaza, was hit for the first time, where a three-month-
old baby was slightly injured.
As it continued its ground offensive, Israel also kept up its
airstrikes, attacking another 50 targets Tuesday, the military said,
including more smuggling tunnels, rocket storage depots and the Saraya
security headquarters in downtown Gaza City.
A defiant Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Tuesday told
an EU delegation - in Israel to push for an end to hostilities - that
the Gaza offensive will continue until Hamas completely stops is
rocket attacks, and a mechanism is in place to guarantee that the
rocket fire will not resume and that no new weapons are smuggled into
Gaza in the future.
Israel will not settle for a temporary solution, he said. Meeting
French President Nicolas Sarkozy late Monday, he urged the Security
Council, presided over by France this month and scheduled to convene
at 2200 GMT on Tuesday, to give Israel 'freedom to act' against Hamas
and other militants firing rockets from Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to address the council,
which is meeting for the second time since Saturday.
Sarkozy, in Damascus later Tuesday, urged Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad to use its influence on Hamas to exert pressure on it to end
its rocket attacks.
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