(The following article is from the January 1-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV combined sources

The United Nations' top official in the Gaza Strip said on Jan. 7 that there were absolutely no armed men inside the UN school in Jabaliya that was the target of an Israeli attack that left 45 dead.

     "I can tell you categorically that there was no militant activity in that school at the time of that tragedy," said John Ging, the director of operations of UNRWA in Gaza, speaking to Al-Jazeera.

     Ging also told the Australian newspaper The Age, "We have established beyond any doubt that the school was not being used by any militants."

     "They were innocent people," said Ging, adding that around 350 Palestinians had taken shelter in the school after fleeing invading Israeli forces. The shelling of the Al-Fakhoura School was deadliest single attack on Gaza since Israel began its air bombardment.

     Ging's comments contradicted claims made by the Israeli military that Hamas gunmen had fired a mortar shell from the school. In a statement released on Jan. 6, the Israeli military confirmed that it had shelled the school.

     Tens of thousands attended a funeral procession for the 45 who were killed in Jabaliya, among them four who died in hospitals overnight.

     The United Nations also says it provided Israel with the GPS coordinates of all its facilities in the Gaza Strip long before the current war began. Three other UN facilities, including schools and a health center, also came under attack by Israeli forces on Jan. 5 and 6, killing at least three. According to UN statistics, some 14,000 people have taken refuge in UNRWA installations across the Gaza Strip.

     In another appalling massacre, dozens of members of the extended al Samouni clan were killed when the site in the Gazan community of Zeitoun was shelled by the Israeli army on Jan. 5.

     Mohammed Shaheen, a volunteer with Palestinian Red Crescent, was in the first convoy of ambulances to reach Zeitoun since it was first occupied then shelled by the Israeli army. His testimony confirmed accounts, first reported in The Telegraph, from survivors who said they feared between 60 and 70 family members had been killed.

     "Inside the Samouni house I saw about ten bodies and outside another sixty," Mr Shaheen said. "I was not able to count them accurately because there was not much time and we were looking for wounded people. We found fifteen people still alive but injured so we took them in the ambulances. I could see an Israeli army bulldozer knocking down houses nearby but we ran out of time and the Israeli soldiers started shooting at us. We had to leave about eight injured people behind because we could not get to them and it was no longer safe for us to stay."

     Shaheen was in a convoy led by a jeep from the International Committee of the Red Cross that made its way down war-damaged tracks past demolished houses to the town. Concerns had been growing that Zeitoun had witnessed massive civilian casualties after surviving members of the Samouni clan reached Gaza City three days earlier. They said that after the Israeli army first took the town on Jan. 3 soldiers had ordered about 100 members of the clan to gather in a single house owned by Wael Samouni. At 6.35 am on Jan. 6 the house was repeatedly shelled. 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.

     Convoys of ambulances twice headed to the area to look for wounded but they were driven back by Israeli shooting. During a three hour lull in offensive operations by Israel, the ICRC led the rescue convoy in although it took a long time for the convoy to make its way down war-damaged roads.

     On Jan. 8, the United Nations suspended its aid operations in Gaza safety and security guarantees could be provided for its staff, who continued to be hit and killed by Israeli attacks.

     The UN provides food aid to around 750,000 Gaza residents, and runs dozens of schools and clinics throughout the territory. They have some 9,000 locally-employed staffers inside Gaza, and a small team of international staffers who work there.