UN AGENCY CONDEMNS ISRAELI TANK FIRE ON PALESTINIAN SCHOOL IN GAZA STRIP

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UN AGENCY CONDEMNS ISRAELI TANK FIRE ON PALESTINIAN SCHOOL IN GAZA
STRIP
New York, Jun 2 2004 10:00AM
Calling it a "violation of the sanctity" of schools, the main United
Nations relief agency helping Palestinian refugees today condemned "in
the strongest possible terms" Israeli tank fire that hit a school in
Rafah in the Gaza Strip, wounding two 10-year-old boys.

"This is the second time in a little over a year that a child in a UN
classroom has been struck by Israeli fire," UN Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said.

"Such indifference to the sanctity of schools and the UN flags flying
above them violates all humanitarian norms and is absolutely deplorable.
Israel's military must take steps to investigate this incident and, if
necessary, bring to justice those responsible," he added. UNRWA said it
would protest to the Israeli authorities "in the strongest possible
terms."

The incident was the latest in a month of violence which has left more
than two dozen Palestinians and 17 Israelis dead and some 3,500
Palestinians homeless because their houses were destroyed or rendered
uninhabitable.

Several tanks shots struck UNRWA's Al-Umariye Elementary Boys' School
on the main road into the Tel Es-Sultan of Rafah, one of them hitting
the window frame of a second-floor classroom. A bullet, or shrapnel from
the window, entered the room where it struck two boys. One was lightly
injured in the head. The second was struck in the neck and rushed to
hospital for emergency surgery. His condition is still serious, but is
now improving.

In March last year a 12-year old pupil was hit in the head and blinded
by a bullet fired from an Israeli observation post on the outskirts of
nearby Khan Younis.

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