By Craig Whitlock and Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 6, 2009; 12:19 PM
JERUSALEM, Jan. 6 -- Israeli shelling near a U.N.-run school in a Gaza refugee camp Tuesday killed at least 30 people, many of whom had gathered inside the school building to flee the ongoing clashes between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters, Palestinian and U.N. officials said.
The shells fell near the Al Fakhora School, one of 23 United Nations schools that had been opened to the public as emergency shelters since the fighting began 11 days ago. On Monday, an Israeli air strike on a U.N. school building in Gaza City killed three members of the same family, Palestinian officials said.
John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, called for an independent investigation into the attacks.
Tuesday's casualties came as Israeli troops moved toward the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, brushing aside an intensified effort by European envoys to broker a cease-fire. On the Israeli side, military officials said three soldiers were killed, and two dozen injured, by an errant Israeli tank shell during fierce fighting on Monday. Israeli paratrooper was killed in a separate incident in northern Gaza on Monday evening, a military spokesman said. Military officials said they were investigating whether that soldier, too, was struck by so-called "friendly" fire.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/06/AR2009010600541_pf.html