Israel-Gaza conflict: UN school shelled by Israeli tanks, leaving 15 dead and 200 wounded - Middle East - World - The Independent

Israel-Gaza conflict: UN school shelled by Israeli tanks, leaving 15 dead and 200 wounded - Middle East - World - The Independent

At least 15 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli tanks shelled a UN-run school in Gaza, health officials have said.

Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry, said
that another 200 people were wounded in the attack on a compound
offering shelter to those who had already fled the fighting elsewhere.

While the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had no immediate comment on
the incident, news agency photographers reported seeing pools of blood
on the ground in the courtyard of the school near the apparent impact
mark of a shell.

Israeli Radio, without citing a source, said that most of those killed at the UN compound were children.

It comes after the UN's humanitarian chief drew attention to the "major concern" of child fatalities in the conflict, which has seen one child killed every hour over the past three days.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the UN's Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said: "There is literally no safe place
for civilians [in Gaza]."

 A Palestinian child, wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a
UN school in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, cries at the
emergency room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya