[News] Schools shelled in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Two Stories Follow - Zionists still claim that they don't target civilians

Gaza: Hundreds leave their homes and take refuge in UN schools

http://www.imemc.org/article/58342

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  Monday January 05, 2009 14:02
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 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News 
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Hundreds of Palestinian families have left their 
homes and taken refuge in UN run schools in Gaza on Monday.

<http://www.imemc.org/attachments/jan2009/070625gazalife.jpg>
file 2008

file 2008

Local sources have reported that at least 500 
families from the towns of Beit Hannon and Beit 
Lahyia, as well nearby villages, have left their 
homes in search of shelter at various UN schools.

IMEMC correspondent in Gaza, Rami Al Meghari, 
talked to those families. Ihmedan Abu Ayiasha, 
age 48, left his home. "What can we do?" he 
asked. "We left our homes because Israeli tanks 
were shelling it. I came to run from the fire of the Israeli Army."

"I left everything, [even] my clothes" he added. 
"We have no food. The UN told us they have 
nothing to give us because Israel did not allow aid into Gaza."

Adnan Abu Hassna, the spokesman for the United 
Nation Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) for 
Palestinian refugees in Gaza said that his agency 
is doing what it can. "We opened the schools for 
refugees, we only have food left in our inventory 
for three days, Israel promised to allow aid in, but so far did not do so."

Israel started its military offensive last 
Saturday, December 27th, 2008, a week and a half 
after the six-month-long Egyptian-mediated 
ceasefire came to an end, on December 16th 2008. 
The death toll in Gaza by Monday reached 534 with 
2,530 injured, including 300 in critical condition.
*********************************************************************************************
Scores killed as Gaza school hit
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009169564177230.html

UPDATED ON:
Tuesday, January 06, 2009

[]

A boy, who fled his house with his family seeks 
refuge at a UN school in Gaza [Reuters]

Israeli strikes have killed at least 40 people 
who took refuge inside a UN school in the Gaza Strip, medics have said.

The strike on Tuesday hit a school run by the UN 
agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, in the northern town of Jabaliya.

Medical sources at two Gaza hospitals said two 
tank shells exploded outside the school, spraying 
shrapnel on people inside and outside the 
building, where hundreds of Palestinians had 
sought refuge from the Israeli attacks.

The toll quickly rose as rescuers struggled through the rubble.

In addition to the dead, several dozen people were wounded, the officials said.

Doctors said all the dead were either people 
sheltering in the school or residents of Jabalya 
refugee camp, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for 
Unrwa, the United Nations Relief and Works 
Agency, said three artillery shells landed near 
the school where 350 people were taking shelter.

Ging said Unrwa regularly provided the Israeli 
army with exact geographical coordinates of its 
facilities and the school was in a built-up area.

"Of course it was entirely inevitable if 
artillery shells landed in that area there would 
be a high number of casualties," he said.

The Israeli military said it is looking into the reports.

Earlier in the day, two people were killed when 
an artillery shell hit a school in the southern 
town of Khan Yunis and three people were killed 
in an air strike on a school in the Shati refugee 
camp in Gaza City, medics said.

More than 640 people have been killed and 2800 
others wounded in the 11-day operation, most of them civilians.

A top UN humanitarian official has condemned the 
violence and demanded an investigation.

Widening the operation

The Israeli military also appears to be 
broadening its assault on the Gaza Strip as heavy 
artillery fire is reported from the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks have 
moved into Khan Younis, the second biggest urban 
area in the Strip after Gaza City, in what seems 
to be an attempt to isolate it from Rafah.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in 
Gaza, said Khan Younis is strategically 
significant on several levels - including that 
Palestinian fighters can fire missiles into Israeli territory from there.

He stressed reporting teams cannot confirm the 
reports as they are unable to reach the south 
from Gaza City in the north because the Strip has 
been effectively dissected by a column of Israel troops.

Mohyeldin also said Palestinian factions had 
reported that the Israeli navy was attempting to 
land near the central coastal city of Deir 
al-Balah – the scene of more intense fighting - on Tuesday.

"There was very intense shelling overnight and 
people woke to the presence of ground forces in 
and around Khan Younis this morning," he said.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed and 24 wounded 
in battles around Gaza City on Monday night, the 
Israeli military said early on Tuesday, bringing 
the Israeli death toll to eight.

Nowhere to hide

Fierce clashes between Israeli troops and 
Palestinian fighters were also reported in 
Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip and two black 
plumes of smoke could be seen rising over the area.

Fares Akram, a Gaza city resident, told Al 
Jazeera there was "no safe place in Gaza" as "the 
Israeli war planes don't stop dropping bombs and firing missiles into Gaza".

Akram says his wife, who is nine-months pregnant, 
is living in fear of going into labor both 
because of how dangerous it is to leave their 
home and because "she knows hospitals in Gaza are in chaos".

He said that while Gazans appreciated 
demonstrations staged across the Arab world in 
protest at Israel's actions in the Strip, most 
believe that while the US backs the Israeli 
offensive the assault will continue.

In addition, the humanitarian situation in Gaza – 
already poor following the 18-month Israeli 
blockade of the strip that left the territory 
desperately short of fuel, food and medical supplies – is worsening.

John Ging, the head of Unrwa, said he was 
"shocked" by "the brutality of the injuries" he 
had seen during a visit to the Shifa hospital in Gaza.

'Absence of accountability'

He said: "There are very real shortages of 
medicine. This hospital has not had electricity 
for four days. If the generators go down, those 
in intensive care will die. This is a horrific 
tragedy here, and it is getting worse by the moment.

[]

Smoke rises after an Israel air strike near the 
border between Egypt and Gaza [AFP]
Ging described the situation as "the consequences 
of political failure and complete absence of 
accountability for this military action" and 
appealed for political leaders in the region and 
around the world to "take on the responsibility".

A number of diplomatic initiatives are under way 
in the region, with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French 
president, visiting Israel and Syria on Tuesday 
for talks aimed at brokering a ceasefire.

Sarkozy, speaking with Bashar al-Assad, his 
Syrian counterpart, called on Syria to use its weight to influence Hamas.

"Syria needs to apply its weight to both sides, 
but in particular to Hamas that the missile 
attacks stop,” he said in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

"Syria has to convince Hamas to make a choice for 
peace, reason and logic and that they themselves 
become the agent of reconciling Palestinians. We 
have to get to the point where we can solve this problem.

"There are still a few hours left for us to carry 
on talking, but I am convinced if both sides are 
prepared to take the first step, the fighting can 
stop. The images we have seen are unbearable for all of us.

"It is up to each side to make the first step, 
with help from Europe, Turkey and Egypt... to 
escape the spiral of violence and replace it with a spiral of peace."

Israel launched its offensive on the Strip after 
a fragile six-month ceasefire with Hamas – the 
Palestinian faction that controls Gaza – ended on December 19.

Both sides blame each other for the failure of 
the ceasefire, with Israel saying Palestinian 
fighters breached the truce by firing rockets into southern Israel.

Hamas, and other Palestinian groups, say the 
truce could not be extended because Israel failed 
to lift its crippling siege of the Strip.





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