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UPDATED ON:<br>
Thursday, January 15, 2009 17:14 Mecca time, 14:14 GMT
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<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200911510353779666.html" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200911510353779666.html<br>
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Israel shells hospital, UN compound <br><br>
Israeli forces have shelled a hospital and UN compound as they continue
to pound Gaza City while pushing deeper into densely-populated
neighbourhoods.<br><br>
Thousands of fear-stricken Gazans fled the advancing Israeli trooops on
Thursday, but observers said there was nowhere safe for them to take
refuge in the territory that is under relentless Israeli attack.<br><br>
Officials said that a building of the UN relief agency in Gaza had been
hit by Israeli shells and set ablaze.<br><br>
"They are phosphorus fires so they are extremely difficult to put
out because if you put water on it, it will just generate toxic fumes and
do nothing to stop the burning," John Ging, the director of UN
relief operations, said.<br><br>
"This is going to burn down the entire warehouse ... thousands and
thousands of tonnes of food, medical supplies and other emergency
assistance are there."<br><br>
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he was "outraged"
by the attack on the UN compound and demanded an explanation as he met
Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.<br><br>
<b>Intense shelling<br><br>
</b>About 500 people were inside the hospital in Tal al-Hawa when it came
under attack. Many had taken shelter in the hope of escaping the
onslaught.<br><br>
"The last hit was on the Red Crescent's operations building and
destroyed the pharmacy. There's a hole in the roof and a fire is still
burning," Sharon Locke, a hospital volunteer, told Al
Jazeera.<br><br>
A building housing a number of international media organisations and
several housing blocks were also reportedly hit on Thursday.<br><br>
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza City, said that the
Israeli shelling was the closest to the centre of the city that it had
been during the Israeli offensive.<br><br>
"There have, no doubt, been a series of air strikes that have
destroyed so many of the buildings here in the heart of Gaza City, but
this is the first time we have seen this kind of shelling," he
said.<br><br>
"We are getting some very horrific accounts from people trapped in
buildings unable to leave."<br><br>
Mays al-Khatib, a Gaza resident, was speaking to Al Jazeera on the
telephone when her building came under attack.<br><br>
"The shelling is continuous since last night, we are here in this
place, we are around 500 families here under bombardment," she was
narrating, when the telephone went dead.<br><br>
Al Jazeera sources said she survived, though her building
collapsed.<br><br>
Israel also hit smuggling tunnels from Egypt into the southern Rafah area
of Gaza.<br><br>
"They used bombs that went deep into the tunnels and shook the whole
Rafah refugee camp. The land trembled beneath our feet," Bassam
Abdallah, a local Palestinian cameraman, said.<br><br>
One of Israel's stated objectives is to stop the smuggling of weapons
across the border to Palestinian fighters. <br><br>
The tunnels are also used to bring in basic supplies for the territory
which has been suffering under an Israeli blockade.<br><br>
At least 1,054 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its
assault on the Gaza Strip on December 27, medics said.<br><br>
More than 4,800 people have been injured in the violence.<br><br>
<b>'Unbearable' toll<br><br>
</b>Ban told a news conference in Tel Aviv that the death toll was
"unbearable".<br><br>
<b>"The time has come for the violence to stop and for us to change
fundamentally the dynamics in Gaza"<br><br>
</b>Ban Ki-moon,<br>
UN secretary-general<br>
"The time has come for the violence to stop and for us to change
fundamentally the dynamics in Gaza and to pursue again the peace talks
for a two-state solution which is the only road for lasting security for
Israel," he said.<br><br>
Thirteen Israelis have been killed in the conflict, including three
civilians.<br><br>
However, the two sides appeared to be inching closer towards a ceasefire
deal on Thursday.<br><br>
Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli envoy, was expected to meet Egyptian
mediators in Cairo after a Hamas delegation gave its view on the proposed
agreement.<br><br>
Meanwhile, a Greek-flagged vessel trying to break the blockade of the
Gaza Strip with medical aid for the Palestinians was turned back to
Cyprus by an Israeli naval vessel.<br><br>
Huwaida Arraf, an organiser with the US-based Free Gaza Movement, said
that the boat was intercepted about 100 miles northeast of Gaza.
<br><br>
"They got very close and they threatened that if we continued they
would open fire on us," she told the Reuters news agency.<br><br>
"They surrounded us with about four warships making it very
difficult to navigate. They said they would use all means to keep us out
of Gaza."<br>
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies <br><br>
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