Israeli shelling kills 42 at U.N. school

Here’s one from a non-Iranian source.

Source: Reuters

Israeli shelling killed more than 40 Palestinians Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international pressure on Israel to halt a Gaza offensive.

An army spokesman said troops fired mortars at the premises after gunmen mortared their positions from inside al-Fakhora school in Jabalya refugee camp. He gave no casualty figure.

People cut down by shrapnel lay in pools of blood in the street. Witnesses said two shells exploded outside the school, killing at least 42 civilians and wounding dozens among people who had taken refuge there and residents of nearby buildings.

It took the Palestinian death toll in 11 days of violence to over 600 and prompted U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to break his silence on the offensive, to say the loss of life among civilians was “a source of deep concern” for him.

A fourth day of a ground assault, launched after a week of air strikes, still failed to end Hamas rocket salvoes, which again caused damage and some injury in southern Israel.

A senior U.N. official in Gaza said 350 people had been sheltering at the Fakhora school and the United Nations regularly gave the Israeli army exact geographical coordinates of its facilities to try to keep them safe from attack.

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Technorati Tags: Gaza , Israel

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