Gaza crisis: Israel strike on UN school kills 10

Описание: Originally published August 14, 2014

The Israeli strike that killed 10 people on Sunday at a Gaza school used as a U.N. shelter received harsh condemnations from governments around the world.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was quoted by the BBC as condemning the strike as a "moral outrage and a criminal act." Ban demanded that those responsible be held accountable for what constitutes a "gross violation of international humanitarian law”.
The U.S. State Department also condemned the strike in harsh terms, calling it “disgraceful shelling” the New York Times reported.

The missile strike on Sunday struck a U.N. shelter Rafah, which is within an area where the Israeli army has told communities to leave.

Some 3,000 Palestinian refugees were sheltering at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school when it was hit by the Israeli missile. Israel said the missile was aimed at three Islamic Jihad militants on a motorbike near the school”, the Times of Israel reported.

The blast killed 10 people and injured 35 other people who were lining up outside the building for food, the New York Times reported.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev was quoted by the BBC as saying that “No shells fell in the school, there was fighting in the vicinity,” and that militants were turning the area into a war zone. The U.S. government said that the presence of militants did not justify targeting areas near the school.

Israel declared a ceasefire for seven hours on Monday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., for all of Gaza except eastern Rafah.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Palestinian death toll in the conflict has risen to a total of more than 1,750 people, of whom at least 1,033 are civilians. Among the dead are 329 children and 187 women.

More than 9,000 Palestinians have been injured.