30 Reported Killed in Blast at UN School

by Yaakov Katz
Jerusalem Post
January 6, 2009

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/618/30-reported-killed-in-blast-at-un-school

At least 30 people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians. The IDF issued a statement saying the school grounds were used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at the troops. According to the IDF, among the dead were members of a Hamas launching cell, including operatives Immad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar.

The infantrymen returned mortar shell fire into the school grounds, the army said. Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site.

The IDF released a video taken by a UAV in the end of 2007 showing terrorists firing mortar shells from right outside the school.

"Hamas has in the past fired at Israel and at troops from inside schools, cynically using civilians, as is proven by UAV footage," the army said.

The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the number of casualties reported by Palestinian sources.

The United Nations said hundreds of people from a Gaza City refugee camp had gone to seek shelter in the school from Israel's 11-day offensive against the Hamas terror group.

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," said John Ging, the top UN official in Gaza.

"I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this," he said, speaking at Gaza's largest hospital. "They are responsible for these deaths."

Earlier Tuesday, seven Palestinians were killed in several separate incidents. One young man was killed in an attack on a Hamas charity building, a 15-year-old was killed in an air force attack in the center of Gaza City and five Palestinians were killed when their house in the eastern part of Gaza City was shelled.

Palestinians also said nine members of the same family were killed in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza, six of them children. Three other people were reportedly killed in the strike. The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the Palestinian reports.

Also on Tuesday, the IAF struck the home of one of the founders of Hamas's rocket division on Tuesday morning, as Operation Cast Lead entered its eleventh day.

The IDF said that the terror chief, Iman Siam, was in his house at the time of the air strike in the Jabalya neighborhood of northern Gaza.

The army said that in addition to being a founder of Hamas's rocket launching program, Siam was also the head of the group's artillery program throughout the Gaza Strip.

At least 10 Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen were killed in other Gaza battles early Tuesday, the IDF said. Palestinians put the number of fatalities at 25.

In central Gaza, the navy fired on targets in Deir al-Balah and in the El-Bureij refugee camp.

There was also fighting in Jabalya and in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Over the past 24 hours the IDF has reported escalating clashes in Gaza, with over 50 separate incidents in northern Gaza.

Paratroopers operating near the town of El-Atatra discovered on Tuesday a booby-trapped doll at the entrance to a smuggling tunnel. The doll was safely dismantled.

In an overnight clash, paratroopers operating near El-Atatra spotted a suicide bomber and opened fire on him. The shooting triggered his explosive belt, which killed him when it detonated. One soldier was lightly wounded in the incident.

The IDF announced that it had conducted over 30 sorties during overnight operations late Monday and early Tuesday. During the raids, IAF planes bombed the Jabalya home of Basal Abu Wadi, a prominent Hamas military officer who was at the level of a company commander in Izzadim Kassam. The Jubalya home of another Hamas officer, Ashraf Guda, was also destroyed in a different air strike. His house was said to function as a Hamas Command and Control Center. The house of a third company commander in the military wing, Iman Jalala, was also targeted overnight.

Elsewhere, a booby-trapped house was bombed. The IDF believed that under the house were a number of smuggling tunnels.

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