Region | Palestinian Territories
Even UN shelters provide no safety for residents
A spokesman for the world body demands impartial investigation into attacks as distraught families grieve over losses in bombed schools
- By Sudarsan Raghavan and Reyham Abdul Kareem, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
- Published: 23:38 January 7, 2009
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Occupied Jerusalem: It was shortly after noon Tuesday when Intisar Sultan walked through the clusters of dirty children and fatigued adults, leaving behind a UN school that had been turned into a refuge for families hoping to escape the fighting around them.
She walked out its doors without her son, Abdullah, 19, who had died along with two cousins hours earlier in an Israeli airstrike that hit the school. They had been returning to bed from the bathroom.
"We left our house for this shelter away from the fire, away from the shelling. But they followed us here," she cried uncontrollably. "This place was supposed to be safe."
Desperate search
In the sliver of Gaza, thousands of Palestinians are trapped between advancing Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, who often fight from the houses, high-rise apartment buildings and office compounds of the crowded neighbourhoods.
The conflict has made the desperate search for refuge more difficult for Palestinian civilians.
In a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops are fighting Hamas in largely residential areas. By Tuesday, more than 15,000 Palestinians had arrived in the nearly two dozen UN emergency shelters.
"People are terrorised by this situation, and they have a right to be," said John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza.
"They are fleeing their homes thinking they are going into a UN location where they will be safe. But there is nowhere to flee. They are trapped."
Less than 17 hours after Abdullah and his cousins died, Israeli artillery hit another UN shelter located in a school inside the Jabalya refugee camp. At least 40 people died in the strike.
Israel said Hamas fighters had fired mortars from the school and named two of the dead as heads of Hamas mortar units.
UN officials called for a probe of the attacks on both schools.
"For a long time, the school was filling up -women, children and others fleeing the conflict. For a military that apparently has very good surveillance, it would have been clear that these were people fleeing the conflict," said Christopher Gunness, a UN spokesman, adding that officials of the world body had given the Israeli military satellite coordinates of all their schools. "All our facilities are clearly marked. We want an impartial investigation to find out what happened."
Many people in Gaza are making painful choices about whether to remain in their homes or flee.
Terrified to leave
Amenhe Al Douse, 55, said that 70 people had crowded into her family's apartment building and that they were too scared to leave. "I am afraid if I go outside I'll be shot," she said. "We are living without electricity. There's no water."
On Saturday, Israeli jets dropped leaflets ordering the residents in northern Gaza to leave or risk death, said Samir Sultan, Intisar Sultan's brother. The Sultans decided to leave their house in Beit Hanoun.
They went to stay with their large extended family near the Jabalya refugee camp. By Sunday, that area was under assault.
"The shelling attacked our family houses. Six houses were fully destroyed, and 15 were partially destroyed. So we all fled," Samir Sultan said.
On Monday, the group arrived at the Asma Bint Bakr elementary school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. There were 11 families. They had left swiftly, with barely their possessions. UN workers registered them and dispatched them to a classroom.
Hamada Sultan, 21, recalled seeing his brother Abdullah leave the classroom and head to the toilets, which were in another building. A few minutes later, he heard the explosions.
"I never imagined it would be my brother. I never thought they would target the shelter," he said. "When the ambulance came, I searched for my brother. I never found him. His body was in pieces."
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