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Israeli forces shell UN school where displaced Palestinians gathered, killing at least 9

The scene after Israel bombed an UNRWA school in 2009. (Photo: Iyad El-Baba/UNRWA/Electronic Intifada)
The scene after Israel bombed an UNRWA school in 2009. (Photo: Iyad El-Baba/UNRWA/Electronic Intifada)

The Israeli military shelled a United Nations Relief Works and Agency (UNRWA) school today, killing and injuring some of the Palestinians who had gathered there after fleeing their homes following Israeli messages to do so. CNN‘s Ben Wedeman, who is reporting from Gaza, said that medical sources told him 30 people were killed. Other reports put the death toll lower; the Associated Press reports that at least seven were killed, while Agence France Press reports nine dead.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness has confirmed that there are “multiple dead and injured at designated UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun.” He said on Twitter that the Israeli military had been given “precise co-ordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun.”

The first reports came in on Twitter from Palestinians in Gaza, and were then confirmed by CNN’s Ben Wedeman, who is reporting from the coastal strip.

As Israel’s assault on Gaza intensified last week, they dropped leaflets in Palestinian neighborhoods urging them to flee ahead of heavy bombardment. Tens of thousands of people heeded the call, with UNRWA sheltering 140,000 people in 83 different schools.

UNRWA has been pulled into the conflict by both sides. On Tuesday, the agency for Palestinian refugees announced that they “discovered rockets hidden in a vacant school in the Gaza Strip” for the second time. The agency condemned “the group or groups responsible for this flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law.” Israel has also hit other UNRWA schools multiple times. The agency’s spokesman, Chris Gunness, reported that “UNRWA’s had 3 direct hits from Israeli fire on 2 schools in 3 days,” injuring five Palestinians in one of the incidents.

During Israel’s 2008-09 assault on Gaza, the military bombed UNRWA facilities multiple times, a war crime under international law.

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worth reading in full

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n15/mouin-rabbani/israel-mows-the-lawn

. “As the lawyer Noura Erakat has cogently argued, ‘Israel does not have the right to self-defence in international law against occupied Palestinian territory.’ Its argument that it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip has been dismissed by Lisa Hajjar of the University of California as a self-generated ‘licence to kill’”.

BTW Israel has lost an awful lot of support in the UK over the last 2 weeks. Even the Tories are sickened.

Heartbreaking.

So Ayman was right…

Will the US finally join the civilized world and condemn Israel’s genocide/massacre/
terrorism?

Traumatized people ‘evacuate’ per Israel’s directive, they huddle in place and Israel murders them.

What is that called Mr. Kerry & Mr. Obama?

(don’t even try to bring up ‘fog of war’ or ‘missiles in schools’– it’s all proven bs!)

This is a crime against humanity.

Where is the snake Abbas that works with Israel!?

Do you like that ban ki moon you phoney bastard!?

This is a repeat of the Samouni family massacre from 2009.

In 2009, 29 members of the Samouni family were obliterated when Israeli soldiers ordered 100 people into one house and then bombed it.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/family-who-lost-29-members-in-gaza-war-we-envy-the-dead-1.5943

No doubt, the Israeli commander who ordered this war crime will be PROMOTED.

In 2012, the Israeli commander who ordered the airstrike on the Samouni house got promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. Israel decided to investigate the case only after it was reported in the Goldstone Report.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=251907