Funerals for victims of school shelling

In Jebaliya, just north of Gaza City, there have been funerals for the dead from a UN school, targeted by Israeli shells. The United Nations said 1,300 civilians had sought shelter from Israeli artillery there. It was the deadliest single act since Israeli ground forces swept into the Gaza Strip last Saturday.

The Israeli military has named two Hamas militants it says were in the area at the time of the strike. But Christopher Gunness of UNRWA said: “We have conducted an intital investigation, and as a result of that, we are 99.9 per cent certain that there was no militant, nor militant activity in the school or in the school compound.”

Israel has further accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields for their fighters. There has been no independent confirmation of the Israeli military’s claims. The building was one of three UN-run schools to have been hit since the ground offensive began.

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tags: Victims