Israel Strikes Gaza as Troops Start Redeploying

abcNEWS



By: TAMER ZIARA and ARON HELLER
Date: 3 August 2014

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Israel Strikes Gaza as Troops Start Redeploying

A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip was hit Sunday by what a U.N. official said appeared to be an Israeli airstrike, an attack that killed 10 people as Israel signalled a possible scaling back in the ongoing war.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack near the Rafah school as both "a moral outrage and a criminal act." The Israeli military had no immediate comment, though it confirmed it was redeploying along the Gaza border for a "new phase" of an operation aimed at stopping rocket fire toward Israel and destroying the Hamas underground tunnel network.

"We have indeed scaled down some of the presence and indeed urged Palestinians in certain neighbourhoods to come back to their homes," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.

Israeli Shelling Continues, Hitting U.N. School

 

Several Israeli tanks and other vehicles were seen leaving Gaza a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested troops would reassess operations after completing the demolition of Hamas tunnels under the border. Security officials said the tunnel mission was winding down and Israel would soon be taking its troops out of the strip.

In Gaza, meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and tank shelling continued. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded after the strike near the boys' school in Rafah. Robert Turner, the director of operations for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said preliminary findings indicated the blast was an Israeli airstrike near the school, which had been providing shelter for some 3,000 people. He said the strike killed at least one U.N. staffer.

"The locations of all these installations have been passed to the Israeli military multiple times," Turner said. "They know where these shelters are. How this continues to happen, I have no idea. I have no words for it. I don't understand it."

Inside the U.N. school's compound, several bodies, among them children, were strewn across the ground in puddles of blood.

"Our trust and our fate is only in the hands of God!" one woman cried.

The Israeli military said they were investigating the strike. In a statement, Ban said the strike was "yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law."

"This attack, along with other breaches of international law, must be swiftly investigated and those responsible held accountable," the U.N. chief said. "It is a moral outrage and a criminal act."

At least six U.N. facilities, including schools sheltering the displaced, have been struck by Israeli fire since the conflict began, drawing international condemnation. In each earlier case, Israel has said it was responding to militants launching rockets or other attacks from nearby.

In nearly four weeks of fighting, Palestinian health officials say more than 1,750 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed. Nearly 70 Israelis, almost all soldiers, have been killed.

Israel launched an aerial campaign in Gaza on July 8 to try to halt Palestinian rocket fire on major cities, and later sent in troops to dismantle Hamas' cross-border tunnels that have been used to carry out attacks.