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 .
brought
israeli mortar strike kill 40 palestinians shelter un school tuesday bring new urgency diplomatic effort end israel military onslaught gaza strip un security council meet discuss crisis
An Israeli mortar strike that killed about 40 Palestinians sheltering in a UN school Tuesday <m> brought </m> 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 .
An Israeli mortar strike that killed about 40 Palestinians sheltering in a UN school Tuesday <m> brought </m> 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 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 .
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 .