GAZA: Israeli tank fire kills 40 at U.N. school -medics

Record ID: 339148

  • Title: GAZA: Israeli tank fire kills 40 at U.N. school -medics
  • Date: 7th January 2009
  • Summary: JABALYA, GAZA (JANUARY 6, 2009) (REUTERS) PEOPLE RUNNING CARRYING WOUNDED CHILD AND PUTTING IN A VEHICLE VARIOUS OF AMBULANCES AND PEOPLE ARRIVING TO THE SITE WHERE ISRAEL TANK SHELL ON SCHOOL VARIOUS OF WOUNDED AND DEAD ON FIELD NEAR THE SITE PEOPLE EVACUATING INJURED TO AMBULANCE MAN CHANTING AND SAYING "GOD THE GREATEST" WOMAN CRYING AND RUNNING BLOOD ON STREET/ AFTERM
  • Embargoed: 22nd January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAEX2I94FAXBI58OGOOPNOXHJ0W
  • Story Text: Forty Palestinians are killed when an Israeli tank targets a school in which people were taking refuge.
    Israeli tank fire killed at least 40 Palestinians near a U.N.-run school in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday (January 6), witnesses and medical officials said.
    Two tank shells exploded outside the school, spraying shrapnel on people inside and outside the building, where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants.
    Several dozen people were also wounded, the officials said.
    An Israeli army spokesman said he was checking the report.
    Earlier in the day, an Israeli air strike killed three Palestinians at another school administered by the United Nations in the Gaza Strip.
    Medical officials in Gaza said more than 598 Palestinians had been killed since Israel launched its offensive against the enclave's Hamas rulers on December 27, with the aim of stamping out rocket fire and weakening the Islamist group.
    International efforts already under way to end the fighting have focused on securing a ceasefire deal that would meet an Israeli demand to ensure Hamas, an Islamist group in charge of the Gaza Strip, could not rearm once hostilities end.
    Most of the deaths reported by Gaza hospitals in recent days have been civilians.
    The Israeli military said it killed 130 militants since Saturday, a figure that suggested the total Palestinian death toll since Dec. 27 might be close to 700 and that bodies could still be on the battlefield.
    Many of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million people lack food, water or power.
    In southern Israel, schools remained closed and hundreds of thousands of people have been rushing to shelter at the sound of alarms heralding incoming rockets.
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