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Shells hit U.N.-run school sheltering evacuees in Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY — A U.N.-run school crowded with Palestinian evacuees in the northern part of the Gaza Strip came under shelling on Thursday, leaving at least 15 people dead and as many as 200 wounded, Palestinian officials said.

Several shells hit the main building and courtyard of the elementary school run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Beit Hanoun, witnesses and Palestinian officials said. They said the school was filled with women and children who had fled their homes to escape more than two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the militant Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip.

Initial reports indicated that the shells came from Israeli tanks. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm that it was the source of the shelling and said it is looking into the incident.

“Many have been killed — including women and children, as well as U.N. staff,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement expressing his shock over the school attack. “Circumstances are still unclear. I strongly condemn this act.”

Christopher Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman, said via Twitter that the agency “over the course of the day” had tried to coordinate with the Israeli army a window for civilians to leave, but “it was never granted.” He said in another tweet: “Precise co-ordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun had been formally given to the Israeli army.”

Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants in Beit Hanoun on Thursday, said Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli army spokesman. He said the militants fired rockets that landed in the city, suggesting that they may have been the ones who hit the U.N.-run facility.

“But we are very carefully reviewing the incident,” said Buchman, adding that the Israeli army takes every precaution to not target U.N. sites or civilian structures. The spokesman said the militants “are using civilian infrastructure and international symbols as human shields.”

More than 140,000 Palestinians have fled their homes because of the fighting, and many of them have sought refuge in buildings run by UNWRA.

The latest violence raised the Palestinian death toll in Israel’s Gaza offensive to more than 750, according to Gaza health officials. On the Israeli side, 32 soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai guest worker have been reported killed.

Reporters who arrived at the school in Beit Hanoun soon after the attack found it empty, with pools of blood smeared in the hallways and courtyard. The scene showed evidence of flight and panic. There were sheep running through the corridors, spilled food, abandoned shoes and piles of bloodied bandages.

Hundreds of people were taking shelter in the school under U.N. protection when it was struck.

At the nearby Beit Hanoun Hospital, less than five minutes from the U.N. shelter, terrified children were clinging to their mothers as ambulance drivers surged to the door of the emergency room.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-hamas-show-no-signs-of-bowing-to-pressure-for-truce/2014/07/24/90213d90-1305-11e4-8936-26932bcfd6ed_story.html?wpisrc=al_national