U.N. Admits Its School Was Not Hit By Israel

By George Whitten, Jerusalem Bureau Chief

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Worthy News) -– The United Nations admitted Thursday, February 5, that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) did not hit a United Nations-run school, correcting its earlier media statements that a massacre occurred within the U.N. education facility.

On January 7, the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that “43 people were killed following an attack on an UNRWA school transformed into a refugee site for displaced people.”

For weeks, there was world outrage over what was perceived as a blatant attack on a school.

However, in a field report issued by OCHA and reviewed by Worthy News Thursday, February 5, the U.N. said “the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school.”  It still suggested however that dozens of people were killed in the reported Israeli attack.

U.N. DIRECTOR

Yet it appeared a far cry from statements made earlier byJohn Ging, UNRWA’s operations director in Gaza, who accused Israel of deliberately carrying out a “horrific” attack and suggested Israel knew it was targeting a U.N. facility.

“We have provided the Global Positioning System co-ordinates of every single one of our locations,” he told reporters. “They are clearly marked with U.N. insignia, flags flying, lights shining on the flags at night. It’s very clear that these are United Nations installations.”

The Canadian newspaper Toronto Globe and Mail said earlier that physical evidence and interviews with several eyewitnesses, including a teacher who was in the schoolyard at the time of the shelling, underscored concerns over the U.N.’s initial statement.

While a few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled UNRWA compound, no one in the compound was killed, the paper concluded.

ISRAEL DENIES

Israel had always denied it deliberately targeted the school, saying it reacted to fire from militants. It says at least two militants were killed in the attack.

Some of the headlines at the time included “Israel Hits U.N.-Run School in Gaza” (Washington Post), “Massacre of Innocents as UN School is shelled” (Independent UK), and “Israeli Strike Kills Dozens at UN School” (Al Jazeera). At the time, U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called the attacks “totally unacceptable.”

The latest findings were not expected to ease calls by human rights groups into an independent investigation into these and other incidents. Palestinian medics  have said that many of the over 1.300 people reportedly killed in the Israeli offensive were civilians, including many women and children.

Israel maintains the death toll may be high because Hamas has been using civilians as “human shields.” It also says the military action was in response to the thousands of rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza in recent years.

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