DEVELOPMENTS
— The Obama administration condemned the deadly shelling of a United Nations school in Gaza, reflecting the growing White House irritation with the mounting civilian casualties stemming from Israel’s offensive against Hamas.
— A National Security Council spokeswoman also criticized “those responsible for hiding weapons in the United Nations facilities in Gaza” — a nod to Israel’s charge that Hamas is housing arms in those facilities.
— The United States is helping Israel resupply its ammunition stockpiles with mortar rounds and grenades from a depot it maintains in Israel, a defense official said.
— Congress is expected to approve $225 million for Israel’s missile defense system, which is credited with intercepting rockets launched from Gaza.
Associated Press
Israeli strikes hit a crowded shopping area in Gaza City on Wednesday, hours after tank shells tore through the walls of a U.N. school crowded with war refugees in the deadliest of a series of attacks that pushed the Palestinian death toll above 1,360 in more than three weeks of fighting.
The bloodshed came on the heels of an escalation by both sides in the embattled coastal territory.
The attack on the U.N. school in the Jebaliya refugee camp was the second deadly strike on a U.N. compound in a week. Tank shells slammed into the compound before dawn, said Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, which is sheltering more than 200,000 people displaced by the fighting at dozens of U.N. schools across Gaza.
Gaza health ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 17 people were killed and about 90 wounded in the school strike.
The Israeli military said it fired back after its soldiers were targeted by mortar rounds launched from the vicinity of the school.
Hundreds of people crowded the school courtyard after the strike, some dazed, others wailing.
“Where will we go?” asked Aishe Abu Darabeh, 56. “Where will we go next? We fled and they (the Israelis) are following us.”
In all, 1,361 Palestinians have been killed — 116 on Wednesday — and more than 7,600 wounded since the July 8 start of fighting, al-Kidra said.
The Israeli military said three of its soldiers were killed when a booby-trapped house collapsed after they identified an entrance to a tunnel inside, raising to 56 the number killed since a ground war began earlier this month. Three civilians also have been killed on the Israeli side.
The U.N. said it was the sixth school to be hit since the conflict began, and the second in which people died.
At least 15 civilians also were killed last Thursday when the courtyard of a U.N. school in Gaza City was hit. Israel has acknowledged that troops fired a mortar shell that hit the courtyard but said aerial footage shows the yard was empty at the time and that the shell could not have killed anyone.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Wednesday’s strike “outrageous” and “unjustifiable,” and demanded an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
“Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children,” Ban said on his arrival in San Jose, Costa Rica. He added that “all available evidence points to Israeli artillery as the cause” and noted that Israeli military authorities had received the coordinates of the school from the United Nations 17 times, including on Tuesday night.
Hours later, several Israeli shells hit a crowded shopping area in the Shijaiyah district in Gaza City, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 200 people, Gaza health officials said.
Al-Kidra and witnesses said the shopping area was busy because residents, and many who had taken shelter in the area from fighting elsewhere, thought a cease-fire was in place. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed the death toll.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike on the shopping area, saying it was investigating the report.
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