Gaza Medics: At Least 40 Killed in Israeli Attack at UN School
By VOA News
06 January 2009
Palestinian medics say at least 40 people have been killed in an Israeli attack at a United Nations-run school in Gaza.
It is the second report of an attack at a U.N. school in the territory Tuesday, the 11th day of Israel's offensive against Hamas militants. Medics say two people died in the other strike, several hours before.
Palestinians say civilians were seeking shelter in the buildings from the Israeli bombardment. Israel has accused Hamas of using schools, mosques and other civilian places to hide.
A U.N. official in Jerusalem told al-Jazeera that his agency had provided Israeli forces the coordinates (exact positions) of its buildings prior to the offensive and has now lodged a formal complaint.
The massive air and ground assault has claimed more than 600 lives, and the United Nations estimates one quarter of the victims were civilians. Many children are among the dead. Another 2,500 people have been wounded.
An official for the Geneva-based International Red Cross, operations director Pierre Kraehenbuehl, says the situation in Gaza has become a "full-blown" humanitarian crisis.
A Red Cross spokesman in Gaza says the situation is dire, and that hospitals are overwhelmed with civilian casualties. Power, medicine and water are in short supply.
U.N. official John Ging with the Refugee and Works Agency says civilians in Gaza, unlike in other war zones, are trapped with nowhere to flee.
Witnesses say Israeli forces are moving deeper into urban areas. They say troops have moved into the southern city of Khan Younis, and that fighting has intensified on the outskirts of Gaza City and around the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya.
Israel says it has killed 130 militant fighters since it began a ground offensive Saturday.
Hamas has continued to fire rockets into southern Israel throughout the campaign, killing at least four Israelis in the south of the country.
At least four Israeli soldiers have been killed by so-called "friendly fire" since the offensive began late Saturday. Three of them were killed and 24 others wounded when they were accidentally hit by an Israeli tank shell. The fourth solider - a paratroops officer - was killed in a separate incident in northern Gaza.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
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