An Israeli air strike on yet another United Nations School being used as a refugee shelter in Gaza has killed ten people and injured at least 30.  The attack brought an unusually strong rebuke from Israel’s main ally, the United States, as well as from the United Nations.

Israel denies deliberately targeting the school, but says Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops were targeting three Islamic Jihad militants who had attacked them.  But intentions didn’t matter to the shell, which exploded near the entrance to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school in Rafah where almost 3,000 people were sheltering.  Israel’s chief ally could not brush this one aside.

“The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which ten more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed,” said US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki.  “We once again stress that Israel must do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties.

“UN facilities, especially those sheltering civilians, must be protected, and must not be used as bases from which to launch attacks,” she added.  “The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday’s attack was “yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law”, calling it “a moral outrage and a criminal act”, and insisted Israel had been informed ahead of time of the precise location of the school.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 1,750 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge”, and more than 9,000 are injured.  Israel denies Palestinian claims that civilians make up 80 percent of the death toll.  The UN had earlier said civilians were 75 percent of those killed.