ISRAEL killed at least 19 Palestinians sheltering in a school in Gaza’s biggest refugee camp early on Wednesday morning, despite repeated warnings that thousands of civilians were sheltering there, the UN said yesterday.
Witnesses at the UN-run Abu Hussein school said the walls had been destroyed, while UN spokesman, Chris Gunness, said ‘the world stands disgraced’ by the attack.
Some 3,000 Palestinians, including many women and children, were taking refuge in the building in Jebalya refugee camp when it came under fire around dawn, Khalil al-Halabi, director of northern Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said.
‘There were five shells – Israeli tank shells – which struck the people and killed many of them as they slept. Those people came to the school because it is a designated UN shelter,’ he said.
In addition to the 19 dead, 125 people were wounded at the Jabalya school, including five in critical condition, Halabi said.
Bob Turner from UNRWA said the attack on the school came without warning and that the school, in which Palestinians had been told to take refuge as a safe area from the fighting, was hit by ‘multiple explosive projectiles’.
In a statement, UNRWA said it was ‘yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises. We call on all the warring parties to respect the inviolability of UN property.’
Israel has been shelling in Jebalya, where some 120,000 people live, since Tuesday.
Israeli tank fire also struck the main market in Jebalya on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding 40 others, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Seven members of one family died in an Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.
At least 1,200 Palestinians and 55 Israelis have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on 8th July.
Most of the Palestinian deaths have been civilians. Some 53 Israeli soldiers have been killed along with two civilians. A Thai worker in Israel has also died.
