Ban slams UN school attack as a criminal act
Print Edition
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described a deadly attack on a UN school yesterday as a “moral outrage and a criminal act” and called for those responsible for the “gross violation of international humanitarian law” to be held accountable.
In a statement, Ban strongly condemned the shelling of the school in Rafah in southern Gaza that killed at least 10 civilians. A Gaza health ministry spokesman said 30 others were wounded.
The school was sheltering 3,000 displaced persons and Ban said the “Israel Defense Forces have been repeatedly informed of the location of these sites.”
The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack, the second to hit a school in less than a week.
Israeli media, on the 27th day of the fighting, reported that most Israeli troops had pulled out of Gaza, and Reuters TV footage showed a column of Israeli tanks and dozens of infantrymen leaving the enclave.
An Israeli military spokesman stopped short of calling the move a withdrawal, but said residents from some evacuated Gaza neighborhoods had been told by the army they could return.
“The troops are in the midst of a redeployment to other parts of the border,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner. “Indeed we are releasing troops from the front line but the mission is ongoing. Ground forces are operating. Air forces are operating.”
In the town of Rafah, where the military has been battling militants, a missile from an Israeli aircraft struck the entrance to the school, where Palestinians who had fled their homes were sheltering, witnesses and medics said.
“It is simply intolerable that another school has come under fire while designated to provide shelter for civilians fleeing the hostilities,” Robert Serry, UN Middle East Special Coordinator, said.
Last Wednesday, at least 15 Palestinians who sought refuge in a UN-run school in Jabalya refugee camp were killed during fighting, and the UN said Israeli artillery had apparently hit the building. The Israeli military said gunmen had fired mortar bombs from near the school.
Earlier, Israeli shelling killed at least 30 people in Gaza, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep up pressure on Hamas even after the army completes its core mission of destroying a tunnel network.
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