Israeli airstrike on Gaza market kills 17 and injures more than 150 shortly after four-hour ceasefire was declared



WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Market attack came after Israeli military had declared a four-hour ceasefire in some areas for humanitarian reasons



Earlier, Israeli tank strikes smash into UN school serving as a refugee shelter - with conflict death toll now at 1,400

UN claims Israel was warned no fewer than 17 times that Jabalya refugee camp school had been housing refugees

Some 200,000 Gazans have fled to UN schools following calls by Israel to evacuate homes ahead of bombings

One refugee who survived latest attack cries: ' Where will we go next? We fled and the Israelis are following us'

UN spokesman calls on international community to help stop the bloodshed, saying: ' N o place is safe in Gaza'

British Foreign Secretary offers no assurance of an imminent ceasefire 'if people are insisting on preconditions'






Israeli shelling killed at least 15 Palestinians sheltering in a UN-run school and another 17 near a street market today, Gaza's Health Ministry said.

With no ceasefire in sight after more than three weeks of fighting, Israel's security cabinet convened to discuss a revamped Egyptian proposal for a truce.

However, it was unclear whether any decision was imminent that could halt a 23-day conflict in which nearly 1,400 people, mostly civilians, have died.

The market attack came after the Israeli military had declared a four-hour ceasefire in some areas of Gaza for humanitarian reasons, from 3pm (1pm UK).

Earlier, 3,300 Palestinians - including women and children - were taking refuge in the Jabalya refugee camp school when it came under fire around dawn.

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An Israeli military spokesman said militants had fired mortar bombs from the vicinity of the school and troops shot back in response. The incident was still being reviewed.

The army said three Israeli soldiers were killed today when a booby-trap bomb exploded in a tunnel shaft they had uncovered in a residence in the southern Gaza Strip.

UNRWA said yesterday it had found a cache of rockets concealed at another Gaza school - the third such discovery since the conflict began.

It condemned unnamed militant groups for putting civilians at risk.

Mr Krahenbuhl said the Jabalya school's precise location and the fact that it was sheltering thousands of displaced people had been communicated to the Israeli military 17 times, with the last notification just hours before the fatal shelling.

The chief Israeli military spokesman, Brigadier-General Motti Almoz, said the offensive against militants in the Hamas Islamist-dominated Gaza Strip had been broadened slightly.