The Israeli army said the UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was hit when troops responded to a mortar attack from the grounds and that the dead included a number of Hamas militants .
UN
israeli army say un school jabaliya refugee camp hit troop respond mortar attack ground dead include number hamas militant
The Israeli army said the <m> UN </m> school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was hit when troops responded to a mortar attack from the grounds and that the dead included a number of Hamas militants .
An Israeli mortar strike that killed about 40 Palestinians sheltering in a UN school Tuesday brought new urgency to diplomatic efforts to end Israel 's military onslaught in the Gaza Strip , as the UN Security Council met to discuss the crisis .
With the conflict now having taken more than 600 lives and aid agencies warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza-where large areas are without power and water
Israel said early Wednesday that it would suspend attacks in some areas so a `` humanitarian corridor '' could be created to deliver vital supplies .
The Israeli army said the <m> UN </m> school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was hit when troops responded to a mortar attack from the grounds and that the dead included a number of Hamas militants .
A military spokesman said he had no information on whether troops had identified the hundreds of civilians in the school compound before they returned fire .
The carnage appeared to intensify international efforts to arrange a cease-fire after 11 days of a punishing Israeli offensive against Hamas , just as deadly strikes on civilians in previous conflicts with guerrillas in Lebanon raised pressure on Israel to halt hostilities .
In the 2006 Lebanon war , 28 Lebanese civilians were killed in an Israeli bombing in the village of Qana , and a shelling that killed more than 100 Lebanese sheltering in a UN compound in the same village hastened the end of a major Israeli assault on Hezbollah in 1996 .
At the Security Council on Tuesday , French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged support for a cease-fire plan announced in Egypt by President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy .
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed the initiative but told the council that any agreement must halt rocket attacks from Gaza and arms smuggling into the Hamas-ruled territory .
Israel has insisted that any truce must ensure that Hamas can not re-arm .
The mortar strike in Jabaliya was the second attack on a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency , or UNRWA .
In an earlier airstrike , three cousins who had taken refuge with hundreds of other people in a UN school were killed .
An Israeli army spokesman said he had no information about the incident .
Shifa Hospital , Gaza 's main medical center , said 42 people were killed in the Jabaliya school , where more than 300 Palestinians had taken shelter from fighting around their homes .
The UN said earlier that it had confirmed 30 dead and 55 wounded , 15 critically .
`` There 's nowhere safe in Gaza , '' said John Ging , the head of UNRWA in Gaza , after the first school was hit .
`` Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized . ''
The UN said some 14,000 Palestinians displaced from their homes were in emergency shelters .
UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness said that the schools hit were clearly marked with a UN flag and that the GPS coordinates of all UN installations in Gaza had been given some time ago to the Israelis .
He said UNRWA wants an impartial probe of the Israeli strike that could also determine whether militants had used the school for a mortar attack .
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters she was unfamiliar with details of the Jabaliya incident but `` unfortunately , [ Hamas militants ] are hiding among civilians . ''
Mohammad Awad , hospitalized with shrapnel wounds in the legs and face , said he had come to the school with his family after his house was destroyed in the bombing of a neighboring home of a Hamas leader .
He said he and other men had been sitting in the schoolyard when shells hit the compound .
`` I saw bodies flying and people torn to pieces , '' he said .
Majed Hamdan , an Associated Press photographer , said that at the local hospital , `` I saw women and men-parents-slapping their faces in grief , screaming , some of them collapsed to the floor .
They knew their children were dead . ''
Umm Ibrahim , a hospitalized woman , said she had lost an 8-year-old daughter and two sons , 11 and 14. She said she had come to the school after a phone warning from the Israelis that the family house would be struck because one son was a Hamas militant .
`` We escaped death in our house , but it pursued us to the school , '' she said .
`` What can we do ?
Where should we go ? ''
In an earlier Israeli strike in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City , at least 12 members of the extended Daya family were killed when their house collapsed after it was hit by missiles , medical officials and a surviving relative said .
Other family members were missing and feared dead in the rubble .
The army said it was checking the report .