Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. Now they are shelling UN schools.
Israeli forces have shelled another UN school in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp. Three artillery shells landed in the perimeter of the school, killing some 30 displaced people who were sheltering there and injuring 55.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, has been using UN schools to shelter some of the 15,000 Gazans who had fled their home following the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The massacre is reminiscent of the Israeli shelling in 1996 of a UN compound in Qana, southern Lebanon, which killed 106 civilians.
John Ging, the UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, stressed that all UN schools in Gaza are clearly marked, flying the UN flag, and that the organisation has provided the GPS coordinates of all of its installations in the area to Israel. “Those who were in the school were all families seeking refuge,” the UN News Centre quoted him as saying.
Over 640 people have been killed so far in Gaza.
This report from the Ma’an News Agency website, one of the most browsed in Palestine:
Date: 06 / 01 / 2009 Time: 17:04
Updated 18:07
Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli forces killed at least 42 Palestinians at a UN school that was sheltering displaced people in Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip late on Tuesday afternoon, medical officials confirmed to Ma’an.
According to initial reports, the school was destroyed, collapsing on top of Palestinians who took shelter inside from the intense bombardment by Israeli air and ground forces.
According to another report, broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Israeli tank shells hit the front gate of the school. UNRWA Spokesperson Christopher Gunness confirmed that at least one shell landed near the school.
Children are also said to be among the dead. Hundreds of people were reported to be in the area of the school at the time of the shelling.
Ma’an’s reporter said that dozens more, all civilians, were injured in the attack on the Al-Fakhoura School. The death toll is expected to rise as a number of the wounded are said to be in critical condition. Ambulances were initially unable reach the school.
The school is operated by UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA has been using its schools to house some of the 15,000 Gazans who have fled their homes due to Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which began on Saturday.
UNRWA says it handed over the GPS coordinates of all UN installations throughout the Gaza Strip to the Israeli military. The school was clearly marked as a UN facility.
Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations confirmed that three refugees had been killed at 11:30 on Monday night when Israeli forces fired directly on a UNRWA school in Gaza City. Another UNRWA school also came under fire in the city of Rafah.
“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized,” said John Ging, the top UN official in Gaza. He also said that people in Gaza are “entitled” to action by the international community to stop the Israeli invasion.
“I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this,” he said, speaking at Gaza’s largest hospital. “They are responsible for these deaths.”
Tuesday’s attack has drawn comparisons to the 1996 Israeli shelling of a UN compound in Qana, southern Lebanon, in which 106 civilians were killed.
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To wits@1:33pm
I’m sorry? Che Guevara? where did that come from or are you projecting? Have a read at this article in the link below and before you claim the Guardian is a left wing paper, the writer served in the Israeli army.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine
totally agree with witso comments. Anyway all Arabs/Muslims rant and weep in the streets when Israel carries out its right to self defense. But where is this crowd of brothers and sisters when arabs kill arabs?? Look at the civilian death toll from suicide attacks in Iraq and Afganistan. Have there been any protest in arab cities over deaths in Iraq?? Have the so called peace loving arabs gone out on the streets and called for an end to terrorist attacks carried out by arabs?? In the coming weeks all this will be over when some ceasefire deal is reached.… Read more »
You mean this school where Hamas was firing mortar shells from right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmXXUOs27lI
“all UN schools in Gaza are clearly marked, flying the UN flag”
You did not mention the fact that Hamas launches rockets in the locality of these sites, drawing Israeli return fire. As leader of Hamas, I am ashamed of what my cowardly organization has done to the people of Gaza. :sob:
The Gaza Strip-Tease Posted Wednesday, January 07 @ 12:08:30 EST Opinion by Irwin N. Graulich January 7, 2009 http://tinyurl.com/9m4n4z Let’s strip this fight down to the actual bare facts. You elect a Nazi-like terrorist government, (and I use the comparison precisely), whose primary goal and charter is the destruction of the state of Israel. They create schools where textbooks expound on the concept of Jews and Christians being monkeys and enemies of Islam who must be destroyed. They establish summer camps that teach 7 year olds the virtues of becoming suicide bombers, actually constructing a sample vest model complete with… Read more »
Drachen enjoys the rape of Israel? Way back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here’s what he said: The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the… Read more »
Drachen/SiNickel/VoidDance and all other Israel haters, here`s news for you: Several years ago the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was appointed by Arafat, he boldly declared that the Arabs had been living in the Land for 10,000 years. Based on conservative Bible chronology, that means the Arabs have been living in the Land before the Almighty created Adam and Eve. How did Israel become Palestine and who are the Palestinians? The second Jewish war with the Romans took place in 132-135 CE. Led by Rabbi Akiva and Simon bar Kochba, the Jewish uprising was crushed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian… Read more »
“These dumb Palestinians sure deserve everything they are getting, don’t they? First they lost half the country to Israel..” -drachen There`s a joker somewhere. Israel lost half the territory it was to get under the Balfour Declaration when the Brits encouraged arab immigration (while stopping the Jews from going in) and created Trans-Jordan. It was British perfidy that lost Israel most of the land it was to get. And who told you that all those fellows in Gaza have been there for thousands of years. You should not listen so much of your friends like SiNickel who are so caught… Read more »
Oooh…the poor perpetual victims…how heartless of us to not believe that they can do no wrong! Booo hoooo hoooo..!
Only Right Wingers must be bad guys. Leftist like Che Guevara are gods!
The Israeli government forcibly evicted their settlers from Gaza almost 3 years ago for the Gazan – all shown live on CNN and BBC. Hamas rockets is what got for all their effort.
SiNickel, why don’t you ask why he quotes Gush Diarrhea’s stuffs?
These dumb Palestinians sure deserve everything they are getting, don’t they? First they lost half the country to Israel. Then they voted for Hamas. Now they’re bombed to bits for firing home-made rockets into Israel. Moral of the story is: Don’t resist when you’re being raped. You’ll only get hurt further.
Anil, there seem to be a lot of Israeli sympathizer in your blog. Where all people come from?
To Wits0, – why do you not read other sources? Do you not know that the url you referenced ie little green footballs is a very rightwing US website? Why is it always Hamas’ doing? Why do you not mention the blockade that has been going on in Gaza, the building up of settlements in the West Bank?
Arutz Sheva reports that a study by the Terror and Intelligence Information Center shows that when the IDF warns Arab civilians of an impending attack in their neighborhood, Hamas uses the information in order to organize the civilians into human shields in the hope of protecting the targets from the IDF’s wrath. The Center explains that Hamas considers this a ‘win-win’ situation: If the IDF cancels its planned attack on a terror target, the terrorists receive a respite. If the IDF attacks despite the human shields, it can then be portrayed as a killer of women and children. The tactic… Read more »
Let’s stick to improving Malaysia, in particular Penang…and stay out of the politics of other region.
I don’t think many of us understands the politics of the Middle East, other than reading it from Wikipedia. I am sure many of those who are protesting cannot even point out Gaza on the world map.
Even the Arabs and Persians are distancing themselves from the conflict. If we want to get involved, there are so many conflicts going around….Sri Lanka, Darfur, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Spain, Pakistan, India…..the list is endless.
It is not possible to drop bombs ANYWHERE without hitting civilians. – drachen Indeed many observers just assume that it was the Israelis who put the refugees in camps and kept them there. Michael Moore speaks about a visit to the refugee camps in 1988: Although in my life I had already traveled through Central America, China, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the Middle East. I wasn’t ready for what I saw in the refugee camps in the Occupied Territories. I had never encountered such squalor, debasement, and utter misery. To force human beings to live in these conditions… Read more »
What Hamas can bring to Palestine?? Peace? NO! Safety? NO! Wealth? NO! Independent? NO! Food? NO! Bomb? YES! Endless War? YES! Well, what else do the poor Palestine people really expect from Hamas? Conflict & death is a certainty. Darkness in the night. Cold in the winter too. These Israel is more than capable of to dish out if someone ask from them. So, why the palestine still support Hamas ideology? Maybe they can see THE END & they all wanted it. Peace on earth!
“misrepresentation of facts”, Drachen?
Denial is a chosen blindness.
Drachen, you are right: See this video of how Hamas deliberately tries to avoid entangling children in the fighting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J08GqXMr3YE
NOT.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth, no thanks to Israel pushing 200,000 refugees into the area. It is not possible to drop bombs ANYWHERE without hitting civilians. Accusing the Palestinians of embedding weapons among civilians is clever misrepresentation of facts.
Scott, the Hamas Charter is Supernatural which could qualify for some psychic powers:
# Tickler Says:
Today at 10: 45.41 (2 seconds ago)
IRA had nothing like the Hamas Charter:
See Article Seven: The Universality of Hamas here:
http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html
Israel left the Gaza to the Fakestinians who then immediately commenced to desecrate Jewish synagogues and holy places (like Joeph`s Tomb etc). Then those profitable greenhouses that Bill Gates purchased for them were vandalised so tunnels could be dug and the equipment used to produce weapons that can be used to push the Jews in the Mediterranean.
This is good. Now, Spain and India should be returned to followers of the True Faith.
Might is right. There are more arabs than jews. Ergo the jews are wrong so the Hamas Charter must be upheld: * Article 7 of the Hamas Covenant states the following: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (the Cedar tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari… Read more »
http://tinyurl.com/96wee5 Two residents of the area who spoke by telephone said they saw a small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the school, where 350 people had gathered to get away from the shelling. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal… An Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to make the information public, said it appeared that the military used 120mm shells, among the largest mortar rounds… Two residents who spoke to an AP reporter by phone said the two brothers [jihadis killed at the scene]… Read more »
http://tinyurl.com/7u4ltl Hamas Steals Humanitarian Supplies, Then Sells Them for Profit Middle East | Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 5:45:39 pm PST Report: Hamas stealing aid supplies to sell to residents. A number of reports from the Strip paint a picture of very difficult humanitarian conditions, not least because of Hamas itself. The suspicion is that the group’s operatives have seized control of any supplies passing through the crossings – including those sent by Israel and international organizations. Reports say Hamas takes a cut out of all aid that arrives, including flour and medicine. Supplies intended to be distributed without gain… Read more »
Is it the same clearly-marked UNRWA school as shown in this video, where Hamas militants were luanching attacks from the inside of it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmXXUOs27lI
Israel is clearly to blame when Hamas uses school children as human shields. Israel should only use psychic-based weaponry that targets the minds of fighters directly, thus avoiding any chance of civilian casualties.
(It is a well-known fact that the IDF kidnapped Professor X and are now in posession of his Cerebro technology, thus there is no excuse for Israel not employing solely psychic weaponry.)