its Gaza offensive this morning.
It said that it was days from achieving its core goal of destroying
all Islamist guerrilla cross-border attack tunnels but a soaring
Palestinian civilian death toll has triggered international alarm.
Several wounded children were brought to Gaza hospital on Thursday,
after an Israeli strike hit a U.N school in which they were taking
shelter.
Abdel Wahab said at the U.N. school in the Beit Lahiya district;
"Women here were surprised when they hit the building. Children and
women were sleeping on the mattresses. This woman was killed here when
she was sleeping. As you can see - all babies and children,"
The early morning Beit Lahiya strike on the school comes a day after
15 Palestinians were killed at another UN school in the Jabalya area,
where thousands of Palestinians were also sheltering.
The U.N. Administrator at Jabalya said that it appeared to have been
hit by Israeli artillery.
Israel said it had more than enough reasons to attack the school
environs, as its forces were attacked by guerrillas near the school,
in northern Jabalya, and had fired back.
However, the United Nations believes there is no justification.
U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, said "the Jabalya elementary
girls school was repeatedly shelled by, from all accounts, Israeli
artillery... I condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms,
nothing justifies such a horror", he said.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved
continuing the assault, which was launched on July 8 in response to a
surge of rocket attacks by Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists.
But Israel also sent a delegation to Egypt, which has been trying,
with Washington's blessing, to broker a ceasefire.
Gaza officials say at least 1,361 Palestinians, most of them
civilians, have now been killed in the battered enclave.
Israel has lost 56 soldiers to Gaza clashes and three civilians to
Palestinian shelling.
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