30th July, 2014
Israeli bombardments early on Wednesday killed “dozens” of Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 16 at a UN school, medics said, on day 23 of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
A shelling shortly after 5:30 am (0230 GMT) killed 16 people at the UN school being used as a shelter for those displaced by the war, a UN official told AFP.
Gaza’s emergency services spokesman put the death toll at “dozens”, after giving an initial count of 20.
A shelling earlier in the northern Gaza Strip killed an 11-year-old handicapped girl, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, with a subsequent shelling in the centre of the small coastal territory killing a 16-year-old girl.
A strike shortly afterwards in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed 10 members of a single family, Qudra said, including one child who could not immediately be identified.
A middle-aged man was killed early in the morning in the southern city of Rafah.
The deaths brought Wednesday’s Palestinian toll to at least 29, with the total count from an Israeli operation to stamp out militant rocket fire to nearly 1,260, according to Qudra’s latest figures.
On the Israeli side, militant fire, including cross-border rocket fire, has killed 53 Israeli soldiers in addition to three civilians inside Israel.