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PHOTOS: Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills 16, leaves 200 injured

July 25, 2014 10:05 IST
A Palestinian man holds a girl, whom medics said was injured in an Israeli shelling at a UN-run school sheltering Palestinian refugees, at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip

At least 16 people were killed when a United Nation shelter in northern Gaza was hit during Thursday's fighting. The strike wounded more than 200, most of them women and children.

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Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills 16, leaves 200 injured

July 25, 2014 10:05 IST
A Palestinian mother comforts her child after what medics said was an Israeli shell that hit a the school sheltering Palestinian refugees, at a hospital in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza

Condemning the incident, the Palestinian government called it "Israeli brutal aggression that targeted" Gaza's displaced. It demanded an end to the "Israeli war machine."

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Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills 16, leaves 200 injured

July 25, 2014 10:05 IST
A Palestinian boy injured in the shelling sits in a hospital in Gaza

The Israeli military had warned on Monday that the shelter should be evacuated. By Thursday, the UN had decided to withdraw its staff and to stop providing food, reports The New York Times.

Chris Gunness, spokesman for the main UN agency in Gaza UNRWA, confirmed the strike and criticised Israel.

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Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills 16, leaves 200 injured

July 25, 2014 10:05 IST
A crater marks the centre of a courtyard at a UN-run school sheltering Palestinians displaced by an Israeli ground offensive, that police said was hit by an Israeli shell, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip

Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the UN, condemned the attack, which came hours after the agency had warned that Israel's actions could constitute war crimes.

"Today's attack underscores the imperative for the killing to stop and to stop now," he said.

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Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills 16, leaves 200 injured

July 25, 2014 10:05 IST
A Palestinian girl wounded in the school lies in a hospital bed

The Israeli military first claimed, in a text sent to journalists, that the school could have been hit by Hamas missiles that fell short.

Later, a series of tweets from the Israel Defence Forces appeared to confirm the deaths were the result of an Israeli strike.

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Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills 16, leaves 200 injured

July 25, 2014 10:05 IST
Relatives of Palestinians, whom medics said were killed in Israeli shelling, mourn outside the hospital morgue

The Israeli military, which said it was "reviewing the incident", claimed the incident had occurred during "heavy combat" in the area and accused "terrorists" of "using civilian infrastructure and international symbols as human shields", according to The Guardian.

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Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza kills 16, leaves 200 injured

July 25, 2014 10:05 IST
A Palestinian boy is carried after being evacuated from the school

The strike came on the 17th day of an increasingly bloody conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants that has killed nearly 800 people in Gaza. Thirty two Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed.