After another UN school hit, UNRWA spokesman says "no place is safe in Gaza"
Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The death toll since midnight has reached at least 50 dead and 110 wounded, after Israeli intensified its attacks yesterday following the end of the humanitarian truce. Overall, the Israel Defence Force hit 75 sites so far today, including five mosques it said were being used by Hamas.
The total death toll is close to 1,300, including 23 civilians killed at the school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Jabaliya refugee camp. People had gathered in the facility after the IDF warned it would hit targets in the area.
"It's the responsibility of the world to tell us what we shall do with more than 200,000 people who are inside our schools, thinking that the UN flag will protect them," a UNRAW official said. "This incident today proves that no place is safe in Gaza."
Meanwhile the UN refugee agency has expressed anger Tuesday night after it found a cache of rockets stashed at one of its schools in the Gaza Strip. This is the third time that rockets have been found in an UNRWA school in Gaza.
Meanwhile, as diplomats race to stop the conflict within Hamas, a delegation representing the Islamist group is in Cairo to discuss the possibility of a truce, whilst others within the same entity are trying to widen the war.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, an aide to Khaled Mashaal, top Hamas leader, said on Wednesday that his organisation hoped Lebanon's Hizbollah would engage Israel from the north.
"We hope the Lebanese front will open and together we will fight against this formation [Israel]," Abu Marzouk told RIA Novosti.
In Israel, the Foreign Ministry has advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to initiate the drafting of a United Nations Security Council resolution on the terms for ending the war in the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, former Israeli President Shimon Peres said that the war in Gaza had "exhausted itself".
"I hope at the end of the day," he noted, "the other side will also reach the conclusion that the biggest victory is to end the war with diplomatic negotiations and peace on the horizon."
Peres added that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "is the only one who has legitimate authority (in Gaza)," asserting that "the best move would be to give Gaza back to Abbas."
For the first time, there is also official confirmation that the Holy See is getting involved at a diplomatic level.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, the Secretary for Relations with States, Mgr Dominique Mamberti said that "the Holy See is acting at different levels. Firstly, the Holy Father himself has indicated on several occasions - and in a moving way - his closeness to Christian communities, in particular the families of Mosul, calling on everyone to pray for them."
"From our part," he went on to say, "the Secretariat of State, through its own diplomatic channels, continues to stimulate the attention of international authorities and governments to the fate of our brothers. Yesterday and today, a 'Note verbale' was sent to all the embassies accredited to the Holy See with the text of the Holy Father's latest appeals on the situation in the Middle East, with the request that they present the message to their respective governments."
"It is our earnest wish that the international community take to heart the matter, as fundamental principles of human dignity are at stake as well as respect for the rights of every person, for a peaceful and harmonious co-existence of individuals and peoples. Iraq and other countries in the Middle East are called upon to be a model of coexistence between different communities; or else, it would be a great loss and a bad omen for the whole world."
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