The UN school hit on Wednesday was
sheltering more than 3,000 displaced
Palestinians
Israel is calling up 16,000 extra reservists to
bolster its military as the conflict in Gaza
continues.
The deployment brings the total called up by
Israel to 86,000. Officials told Israeli media the
call-up gave the military “room to breathe”.
The move comes as Israel pledged to
investigate a strike on a UN-run school that
killed at least 16 people.
In all, more than 100 people in Gaza were
killed on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said.
Spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC Israel
would apologise if it discovered that its fire was
responsible for the strike on the school.
“We have a policy – we don’t target civilians,”
he said.
The US and UN condemned the attack, with UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling it
“unjustifiable”.
On Wednesday, Israel’s security cabinet met to
approve the continuation of strikes against
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which
controls Gaza.
Operations would continue against suspected
militants, suspected rocket sites and a network
of tunnels discovered leading into Israel, the
military said.
At least 19 air strikes were carried out
overnight, officials said.
Israel began Operation Protective Edge on 8
July. Since then at least 1,360 Palestinians have
been killed. Most have been civilians.
Some 58 Israelis have been killed, 56 soldiers
and two civilians. A Thai worker in Israel has
also died.
The attack on the school in the Jabaliya refugee
camp, which was sheltering more than 3,000
civilians, took place on Wednesday morning.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “all
available evidence” suggested Israeli artillery
was the cause.
Speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight, Israeli
government spokesman Mark Regev said: “It’s
not clear to us that it was our fire but we know
for a fact there was hostile fire on our people
from the vicinity of the school.”
He accused Hamas of hiding weapons in civilian
facilities and UN shelters.
Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN Relief
and Works Agency (Unrwa) told the BBC that
Israel had been told 17 times that the school
was housing displaced people, saying the attack
caused “universal shame”.
The US state department also criticised the
attack on the school. It also condemned those
who hid weapons in UN facilities, a
spokeswoman said.
Also on Wednesday, an attack on a market in
Shejaiya killed 17 people, while an Israeli air
strike killed seven people in Khan Younis,
Palestinian officials said.
Those attacks came during a four-hour
humanitarian ceasefire called by the Israelis
after the school incident.
However, Israel said the truce was only partial.
Hamas rejected it as meaningless.
Israel said Palestinian militants continued to
fire rockets from Gaza, with more than 50
launched on Wednesday.
‘Strong support’
The current conflict, now in its 24th day, is the
longest between Israel and militants from Gaza.
A 2012 offensive lasted for eight days, and the
2008 conflict went on for 22 days.
The Gaza Strip, sandwiched between Israel and
Egypt, has been a recurring flashpoint in the
Israel-Palestinian conflict for years.
Hostilities increased after the abduction and
killing of three Israeli teenagers in June. Israel
blamed Hamas and carried out a crackdown on
the group in the West Bank. Hamas denied
being behind the killings.
Tensions rose further after the suspected
revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager in
Jerusalem on 2 July. Six Jewish suspects were
arrested over the youth’s abduction and
murder.
Recent opinion polls in Israel suggest strong
support for the military operation.
Hamas says it will not stop fighting until a
blockade, maintained by both Israel and Egypt,
is lifted.
Israel occupied Gaza in the 1967 Middle East
war and only pulled its troops and settlers out
in 2005. Israel considered this the end of the
occupation, but it still exercises control over
most of Gaza’s borders, water and airspace.
Egypt controls Gaza’s southern border.
Source: Citifmonline
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