Deadly Israeli raids on schools take Gaza toll to 660

GAZA: Israeli forces blazed into towns across Gaza on Tuesday striking Hamas targets and also hitting three UN-run schools in attacks that killed at least 48 people and sparked urgent new ceasefire calls.

While troops battled Islamist militants inside Gaza City in the heaviest fighting of the 11-day-old offensive, Hamas made its deepest rocket strike yet into the Jewish state defying Israeli efforts to halt the fire.

As the Palestinian death toll surged above 660, Arab states pressed for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the onslaught, but Israel rejected ceasefire calls by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leaders.

However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to open a “humanitarian corridor” into Gaza early Wednesday to allow residents to receive aid.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply dismayed” by the strikes on the UN schools and called them “totally unacceptable.”

The United Nations demanded an investigation after tank and air assaults hit the schools, run by its Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA. At least 43 people sheltering at the Jabaliya refugee camp school in northern Gaza were killed, emergency services said. The UN confirmed at least 30 dead and 55 wounded in the shelling.

The Israeli military said a preliminary inquiry indicated that mortar rounds may have been fired from the Jabaliya school.

Earlier two people were killed when an artillery shell hit a school in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis. Three people also died in an air strike on another school in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, medics said.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories Maxwell Gaylard said Israel had the GPS coordinates of all UN buildings in Gaza — including schools.

“Neither homes nor UN shelters are safe” for civilians, he said and called for an investigation. “If international humanitarian law has been contravened, those responsible must be held accountable.”

Heavy fighting raged in Gaza City and around nearby Deir al-Balah and Bureij. One air raid on Gaza City killed 12 people, including seven children from the same family. Tanks with helicopter gunship support rolled into Khan Yunis before dawn, to be met with return fire from Hamas and its allies, witnesses said.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed in two friendly fire incidents overnight and another died when his patrol was attacked on Tuesday, bringing to six the total since Saturday.

About 35 Hamas rockets were fired over the border, one striking 45 kilometres (28 miles) inside Israel — the deepest yet — and slightly wounding a baby, the army said.

Three civilians and one soldier have been killed by rockets hitting Israel since the offensive began.

Protests against Israel have spiralled worldwide and the French president led new calls for a truce as he met Israeli leaders in Jerusalem on Monday.

GAZA CITY, Wednesday, AFP