International

School attack unprovoked, admits Israel

DUBAI: Israeli military officers have admitted that an attack on a U.N.-run school in Gaza, which led to 40 deaths, was not in response to Palestinian firing from inside the building, the United Nations has said.

The casualties were caused by three tank shells which landed in the school on January 7.

“In briefings senior [Israel Defence Forces] officers conducted for foreign diplomats, they admitted the shelling to which IDF forces in Jabalya were responding did not originate from the school,” the Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as saying. “The IDF admitted in that briefing that the attack on the U.N. site was unintentional,” he observed.

On Thursday, an Israeli tank shell killed a Palestinian working for the UNRWA at a Gaza border crossing with Israel. The U.N. truck was well-marked and the incident took place during the time when a pause in fighting had been declared to allow in humanitarian supplies, UNRWA said.

Meanwhile, a special report by the U.N. said on Friday that on January 4, 30 Palestinians were killed in Gaza after the Israeli Army moved 110 Gazans into a building which was later shelled. At least 778 Palestinians, including more than 200 children, have been killed and 3,250 injured since the Israeli offensive began on December 27.

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