Israeli Broadcasting Authority banned human rights organisation ad which lists names of children killed in Gaza

PM that the West is becoming less sympathetic to his country's cause


An Israeli shell has hit a UN-run school in Gaza, killing 15 Palestinians and injuring at least 200 who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside.

Pools of blood soiled the school courtyard, which was packed with mainly woman and children, and there is a large scorch mark in the courtyard marking the place where one of the tank shells hit.

Although the UN said they had given the Israeli army the co-ordinates of the school to prevent such an incident, the shells landed on the school where families had gathered in the courtyard expecting to be evacuated shortly in a Red Cross convoy.

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An Israeli shell has hit a UN-run school used to shelter hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, killing 15 and injuring at least 200 who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside

Pools of blood soiled the school courtyard, amid scattered books and belongings and there was a large scorch mark in the courtyard marking the place where one of the tank shells hit. Right, a young boy is treated for critical injuries

Although the Israeli army had reportedly been given the co-ordinates of the school to prevent such an incident, the shells landed on the school where families had gathered in the courtyard expecting to be evacuated shortly in a Red Cross convoy

Palestinian children, wounded in the Israeli strike on the U.N. school cry as they lay on the floor at the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya

Laila Al-Shinbari, a mother whose son was killed at the school said: 'All of us sat in one place when suddenly four shells landed on our heads ... Bodies were on the ground, (there was) blood and screams. My son is dead and all my relatives are wounded including my other kids.'

The director of a local hospital said various medical centres around Beit Hanoun were receiving the wounded.

'Such a massacre requires more than one hospital to deal with it,' said Ayman Hamdan, director of the Beit Hanoun hospital

Two young boys injured at the school receive treatment. Chris Gunness, spokesman for the main U.N. agency in Gaza UNRWA, confirmed the strike and criticised Israel

A disabled Palestinian lies on seats after being evacuated from the U.N-run school following the shelling

'Such a massacre requires more than one hospital to deal with it,' said Ayman Hamdan, director of the Beit Hanoun hospital.

Chris Gunness, spokesman for the main U.N. agency in Gaza UNRWA, confirmed the strike and criticised Israel.

'Precise co-ordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun had been formally given to the Israeli army ... Over the course of the day UNRWA tried to coordinate with the Israeli Army a window for civilians to leave and it was never granted,' Gunness said on his Twitter page.

Earlier on Thursday, Gunness said that Israeli forces had bombed U.N. shelters on three separate occasions since Monday, in incidents which did not cause injuries.

The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident, saying that rockets launched by Hamas had landed in the Beit Hanoun area during fighting with its forces, and that those rockets may be responsible for the deaths.

A Palestinian girl, who medics said was wounded in Israeli shelling, receives treatment at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip Israel

One child has been killed in Gaza every hour for the past two days, the United Nations said in their latest report into the civilian casualties of the ongoing conflict

A truce remained elusive despite intensive mediation efforts. Israel says it needs more time to eradicate rocket stocks and cross-border tunnels in the Gaza Strip

Palestinian civilians carry a wounded man following an Israeli military strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Seven Palestinians were killed in a series of strikes today in a flashpoint area near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, the emergency services said

Palestinians gather around the bodies of five members of the Abu Daqqa family, who were killed following an Israeli air strike on their home

Israel insists it does its utmost to prevent civilian casualties but says Hamas puts Palestinians in danger by hiding arms and fighters in civilian areas. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum condemned the violence, saying Israel was targeting displaced people and 'committing massacres.'

Earlier today British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned the Israeli Prime Minister that the West is becoming 'less and less sympathetic to Israel' as the number of Palestinians killed in the conflict continues to rise.

Today Israeli tanks and warplanes have bombarded the Gaza Strip, as Hamas militants stuck to their demand for the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade in the face of US efforts to reach a ceasefire.

Appearing at a press conference today with visiting Mr Philip Hammond, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no reference to the ceasefire efforts in underscoring his determination to neutralize the rocket and tunnel threats.

'We started this operation to return peace and quiet to Israel,' Netanyahu said in Jerusalem. 'And we shall return it.'

But Mr Hammond who appeared with Mr Netanyahu at a press conference told Sky News that he plans to warn the Israeli PM that he risks the West becoming less sympathetic to his country's cause.

Israeli soldiers watch over Hamas militants arrested by IDF who were forced to remove their clothes and put thier hands behind their heads

'As this campaign goes on and the civilian casualties in Gaza mount, western opinion is becoming more and more concerned and less and less sympathetic to Israel,' he said.

'That's simply a fact and I have to tell that to my Israeli counterparts.'

The 16-day conflict has claimed the lives of 718 Palestinians, most of them civilians, while Israel has lost 32 soldiers, and two Israeli civilians all since July 17, when it widened its air campaign into a full-scale ground operation aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza and destroying a sophisticated network of cross-border tunnels.

Underscoring the challenges he faces, the leader of Hamas insisted the Islamic militants would not relent until their main demand of lifting an Egyptian-Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is met.

'When it comes to the balance of power in this crisis between us and Israel, they are the executioners, the aggressors, the occupiers, the settlers, and we are the true owners of the land,' Khaled Mashaal said in a televised speech from his home-in-exile in Doha, Qatar.

Palestinians search for victims under the rubble of a house which witnesses said was destroyed by an Israeli air strike during an Israeli ground offensive east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip

Hamas yesterday rejected a ceasefire to end 16 days of deadly fighting with Israel unless the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted, its chief Khaled Meshaal said in Doha

A Palestinian man looks through a window scarred with shrapnel from a neighbouring building that police said was hit by an overnight Israeli air strike, in Jabaliya

A heavily damaged car is seen in an alley next to a mosque that was destroyed following an Israeli military strike in the Jabalia district in the northern Gaza Strip

Palestinians gather around a house which witnesses said was damaged in an Israeli air strike that killed two children, in the northern Gaza Strip

An injured Palestinian girl is carried by a relative as families leave their neighborhood to a safer location

Israeli troops fired tank shells that reached parts of the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps.Clashes also erupted between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, and the sound of explosions was audible across the town, Batniji said

A Palestinian woman holds a white flag as she flees her house with her daughter from Israeli shelling

NAMES OF DEAD GAZA CHILDREN BANNED ON ISRAELI RADIO The names of children killed in Gaza have been banned from being read out on Israeli radio. They formed part of an advert by human rights organisation B'Tselem. But the Israeli Broadcasting Authority banned the radio advertisement saying the ad's content was 'politically controversial'. In its appeal, B'Tselem demanded to know what was controversial about the item. 'Is it controversial that the children [aren't] alive? That they're children? That those are their names? These are facts that we wish to bring to the public's knowledge.' It intends to petition Israel's supreme court on Sunday in an effort to get the ban overturned. Advertisement

'We will not accept anything but the end of the siege.'

But an Israeli cabinet minister said a truce involving the withdrawal of Israeli ground forces from Gaza is unlikely before next week.

Science Minister Yaakov Peri told the Walla news agency the troops needed more time to destroy the network of tunnels used by Hamas militants.

'I do not see a ceasefire in the coming days where the IDF leave.

'I can say authoritatively that two or three days will not be enough to finish tackling the tunnels.'

Israel imposed the blockade in 2006 after Hamas and other militants abducted an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid. It tightened the siege in 2007 after Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but had eased some of the restrictions in recent years.

Egypt tightened its own restrictions last year after the overthrow of a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and has destroyed many of the cross-border smuggling tunnels that sustained Gaza's economy, and which were also used by Hamas to bring in arms.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Israel Wednesday on an Air Force jet, despite a ban imposed a day earlier by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on commercial flights into Ben-Gurion Airport because of Hamas rocket fire.

The FAA dropped the ban just before midnight, but European airlines have extended their cancellations through Thursday.

'We certainly have made steps forward,' Kerry said in Jerusalem Wednesday, without elaborating. 'There's still work to be done.'

Meanwhile today heavy fighting was reported along the border of central Gaza, according to Gaza police spokesman Ayman Batniji.

Israeli soldiers shoot tear gas towards Palestinian protesters against the Israeli military action in Gaza, during a demonstration at Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus

A Palestinian protester against the Israeli military action in Gaza runs from tear gas thrown by Israeli soldiers, during a demonstration at Hawara checkpoint

Israeli soldiers shoot tear gas towards Palestinian protesters against the Israeli military action in Gaza

Israeli troops fired tank shells that reached parts of the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps.Clashes also erupted between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, and the sound of explosions was audible across the town, Batniji said.

Israeli naval vessels meanwhile fired more than 100 shells along the coast of Gaza City and northern Gaza, the spokesman said.

Rescue teams were prevented from operating in the area because of the heavy fire, he added.

Today three UN relief staff working as teachers have been killed in Gaza, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said.

Gaza police and health officials say six members of the same family and an 18-month-old infant boy were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the Jebaliya refugee camp early Thursday.

Twenty others were injured in the strike, they say, and rescue officials were digging through the rubble of flattened homes, looking for survivors.

One child has been killed in Gaza every hour for the past two days, the United Nations said in their latest report into the civilian casualties of the ongoing conflict.

Israeli tanks move near the Israel and Gaza border as Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded the Gaza Strip today

An Israeli helicopter lands to take a wounded soldier near the Israel and Gaza border

Israel soldiers clean the muzzle of their Merkava battle tank at an unspecified location at the border between Gaza and Israel

An Israel Merkava battle tanks pulls out from the Gaza Strip to a position at an unspecified location

A road sign reading in Arabic and Hebrew 'Gaza 2 Kilometers' stand at a road blocked by an Israeli army APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier)

Israel soldiers stand together for a prayer at their base located next to the Israeli border