World

As Many As 70 People Killed in Gaza During Israeli Shelling

by Rob Walker | January 9, 2009 at 12:01 pm

290 views | 39 Recommendations | 5 comments

The Red Cross is reporting that at least 70 people were killed in Gaza after being ordered into a large house by Israeli soldiers and then bombed the next morning.

As many as eight wounded survivors were left behind as the aid workers came under fire by the Israeli military, which took the town on Saturday night.

They said that after the Israeli army first took the town on Saturday night soldiers had ordered about 100 members of the clan to gather in a single house owned by Wael Samouni around dawn on Sunday.

At 6.35am on Monday the house was repeatedly shelled with appalling loss of civilian life.

A handful of survivors, some wounded, others carrying dead or dying infants, made it on foot to Gaza's main north-south road before they were given lifts to hospital. Three small children were buried in Gaza City that afternoon.

Meanwhile, along with the UN calling for a ceasefire, which Israel has denied, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an independent war crimes investigation in response to the allegation.

Pillay went further in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., saying an incident in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later.

Member Stories

NowPublic staffer Dave Keating posted about the United Nations ceasefire call earlier this morning:

Israel indicated today that it will ignore a UN resolution calling for an immediate cease fire to the bombing of Gaza. Israel still enjoys the support of the US, which has not called for an end to the bombing.

NowPublic member Saaer posted the decleartion by the UN in his story here:

The United Nations Security Council approved Gaza Strip ceasefire resolution number 1860.

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Karen Hatter

at 13:15 on January 9th, 2009

Unconscionable and indefensible.

djsblack

at 13:29 on January 9th, 2009

To the contrary very defensible as legitimate self-defense by Israel and also very conscionable. If the Hamas wants to destroy their civilian population on behalf of Iran, that's up to them.

Karen Hatter

at 01:23 on January 10th, 2009

I repeat, the actions named in this article, being committed by the Israeli Army, most glaringly, the herding of civilians into a building and bombing that building, can NOT be defended in any way.

freewind

at 09:08 on February 1st, 2009

How can you excuse what the Israeli government did? Hamas happens to be Palestinians that live in Gaza, what's more they are legally the government as they were voted by the Palestinians. They are not hiding they live there. How would you like it if your country was bombed, but then the aggressor said it was your governments fault, they were hiding amongst the population and using them as human shileds?

Amy Judd

at 14:24 on January 9th, 2009

Before any of the comments on this thread get out of hand, please do remember that we have a code of conduct that we expect all our members to adhere to, and while it is perfectly fine to have an opinion about a matter and express that, we don't allow personal attacks on other members to take place.

If you have any questions, you can ask me in a private message.

Thanks