Friday 1st, august 2014.
15 Killed & 90 Wounded as Israel Shells UN School in Gaza
GAZA CITY (dpa/NAN) ― At
least 15 people died and 90 were wounded on Wednesday when Israeli
tanks shelled a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip where scores of
civilians reportedly took refuge.
The
al-Hussein school in the Jabalia refugee camp, which is run by the UN
Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), was shelled for the second time in less
than a week, witnesses said.
An
Israeli military spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv that a preliminary
inquiry found that militants fired mortar shells from near the school at
Israeli soldiers in the area, who “returned fire to the origin.’’
Earlier in the day, in the same area, five Israeli soldiers were injured by a mortar shell.
Palestinian
militants fired at them with rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank
missiles as they were being evacuated, the Israeli military said.
Gaza Health Ministry Spokesman, Ashraf al-Qedra said at least 54 Palestinians were killed following hours of intense shelling and bombardments since midnight.
On the 23rd day of the Israeli offensive in Gaza the death toll there has reached 1,283.
More than 7,170 people have been wounded. Reports say most of the dead in the densely populated ports enclave are civilians.
Also
53 Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians and one Thai national have
been killed, and hundreds have been wounded the report added.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
was meeting with his security cabinet, a Turkish mediator arrived in
Israel to attempt to mediate a truce between Israel and Palestinian
factions.
Mohamed Deif,
the elusive chief of al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, declared
there will be no ceasefire with Israel until its offensive ends and the
blockade on Gaza is lifted.
He was reported to have said, “Palestinian armed resistance is stronger and more powerful than the army of the enemy.’’
Israel’s campaign aimed at curbing rocket attacks from Gaza has become its 2006 second Lebanon war.
In early 2009, the 22-day-long Gaza conflict killed up to 1,444 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities, and 13 Israelis.
The Israeli military said that Palestinian fighters have launched at least 80 rockets at Israel since on Tuesday.
Air
raid sirens and several booms were heard in Tel Aviv on Tuesday
evening, while Beersheba and southern Israel came under rocket fire on
Wednesday morning and afternoon.
In
an overnight airstrike on a house in the southern Gaza town of Khan
Younis, 10 members of one Palestinian family were killed and 25 wounded,
al-Qedra said.
At least seven people were killed in a house bombed in eastern Gaza City.
Most of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents are without electricity after a power plant was shelled and caught fire on Tuesday.
The
damage was expected to take months to fix, UN officials said it would
affect hospitals, water supplies and sewage treatment systems.
Meanwhile, El Salvador, Peru and Chile recalled their ambassadors to Tel Aviv to protest the Gaza bombardments.
The
Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed “deep disappointment’’ with the
“hasty decision,’’ charging that this decision encouraged Hamas.
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