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<h1><font size=4><b>Two Stories Follow - Zionists still claim that they
don't target civilians<br><br>
Gaza: Hundreds leave their homes and take refuge in UN
schools</b></font></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.imemc.org/article/58342" eudora="autourl">
http://www.imemc.org/article/58342</a><br><br>
<img src="http://www.imemc.org/graphics/date.gif" width=12 height=10 alt="author">
Monday January 05, 2009
14:02<img src="http://www.imemc.org/graphics/person.gif" width=14 height=12 alt="author">
by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News
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<dd>Hundreds of Palestinian families have left their homes and taken
refuge in UN run schools in Gaza on Monday.<br><br>
</dl><a name="attachment34365"></a>
<a href="http://www.imemc.org/attachments/jan2009/070625gazalife.jpg">
<img src="http://www.imemc.org/cache/imagecache/local/attachments/jan2009/400_0___10000000_0_0_0_0_0_070625gazalife.jpg" width=400 height=266 alt="file 2008">
</a><a name="attachment34365"></a><br>
file 2008 <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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."<br><br>
"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." <br><br>
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." <br><br>
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.
<br>
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<font size=5><b>Scores killed as Gaza school hit <br>
</b></font><font size=3>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009169564177230.html" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009169564177230.html</a>
<br><br>
UPDATED ON:<br>
Tuesday, January 06, 2009 <br><br>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/1/6/20091612929918580_8.jpg" width=206 height=309 alt="[]">
<br>
<b>A boy, who fled his house with his family seeks refuge at a UN school
in Gaza [Reuters]</b> <br><br>
Israeli strikes have killed at least 40 people who took refuge inside a
UN school in the Gaza Strip, medics have said.<br><br>
The strike on Tuesday hit a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian
refugees, Unrwa, in the northern town of Jabaliya.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
The toll quickly rose as rescuers struggled through the rubble.<br><br>
In addition to the dead, several dozen people were wounded, the officials
said.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Ging said Unrwa regularly provided the Israeli army with exact
geographical coordinates of its facilities and the school was in a
built-up area.<br><br>
"Of course it was entirely inevitable if artillery shells landed in
that area there would be a high number of casualties," he
said.<br><br>
The Israeli military said it is looking into the reports.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
More than 640 people have been killed and 2800 others wounded in the
11-day operation, most of them civilians.<br><br>
A top UN humanitarian official has condemned the violence and demanded an
investigation.<br><br>
<b>Widening the operation<br><br>
</b>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
"There was very intense shelling overnight and people woke to the
presence of ground forces in and around Khan Younis this morning,"
he said.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>Nowhere to hide<br><br>
</b>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.<br><br>
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".<br><br>
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".<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>'Absence of accountability'<br><br>
</b>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.<br><br>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/1/6/200916105420878734_3.jpg" width=270 height=180 alt="[]">
<br>
<b>Smoke rises after an Israel air strike near the border between Egypt
and Gaza [AFP]</b> <br>
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". <br><br>
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.<br><br>
Sarkozy, speaking with Bashar al-Assad, his Syrian counterpart, called on
Syria to use its weight to influence Hamas.<br><br>
"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. <br>
<br>
"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.<br>
<br>
"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.<br>
<br>
"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."<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Hamas, and other Palestinian groups, say the truce could not be extended
because Israel failed to lift its crippling siege of the Strip.<br><br>
<br><br>
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