US 'appalled' by 'disgraceful' Israeli shelling of Gaza UN school

Men inspect dead and wounded Palestinians outside a UN-run school in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. Photograph: APAimages/REX

The United States said on Sunday it was 'appalled' by the 'disgraceful' shelling by Israel of a United Nations school sheltering some 3,000 displaced people in southern Gaza.

In language that was rare in its directness and severity, the US denounced the attack which occurred earlier in the day and killed 10 people, noting that the school had been designated a protected location and the Israel Defense Forces had been informed numerous times of the school's coordinates.

The State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, called on Israel to do 'more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties'.

'The United States is appalled by today's disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which at least 10 more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed,' Psaki said in a statement.

On Wednesday, at least 15 Palestinians who sought refuge in a UN-run school in Jabalya refugee camp were killed, and the UN said Israeli artillery had apparently hit the building. The Israeli military said gunmen had fired mortar bombs from near the school and it shot back in response.

The US called that attack 'totally unacceptable and totally indefensible '.

Psaki said UN facilities should not be used as bases from which to launch attacks.

'The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians,' she said.

The US condemnation followed similar words one by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who said the shelling near the Rafah school was 'a moral outrage and a criminal act'.

On Friday, answering questions in a White House briefing, President Barack Obama condemned Hamas's then-reported abduction of an Israeli soldier - since reported by the Israeli army to have been killed, not abducted - but also said: 'We must be clear that innocent civilians in Gaza caught in the crossfire have to weigh on our conscience and we have to do more to protect them.'

The fighting on Sunday pushed the Gaza death toll given by Palestinian officials to 1,775, most of them civilians. Israel has confirmed that 64 of its soldiers have died in combat, while three civilians have been killed in Israel.

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