Gaza crisis: US condemns fatal attack on UN school, says culprit unknown – as it happened

Gaza health officials say 15 people have been killed and more than 150 wounded by an Israeli airstrike in a crowded shopping area, the AP reports:

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Gaza health ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra says the area was busy Wednesday because residents thought a cease-fire was in place. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed the death toll.

Israel had earlier announced a “humanitarian window” in certain parts of the territory. It said it would not halt fire in other areas, including in Shijaiyah, where the strike took place.

Gaza militants had fired several rockets at Israel earlier.

There are more accounts emerging of a reported attack on a busy market in Gaza. This via Al-Jazeera:

This via ABC News:

The strike appears to have happened during an ostensible “humanitarian window” announced by the Israeli military.

Update: a note from human rights activist Elizabeth Tsurkov on the parameters of the “ceasefire”, as understood in Israel:

An ominous news alert from the Associated Press:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) Palestinian official: 15 dead, more than 150 wounded in strike on busy Gaza market.

The Guardian’s Mona Mahmood (@monamood) has spoken by telephone with Dina Salman, a former resident of Shuja’iya who has taken refuge in Gaza City. “It is relatively quiet in Gaza centre now, though the bombardment never ceased at night,” Dina tells Mona.

Then she tells the story of her sister delivering a baby “in the stairwell” because an ambulance refused to take her to the hospital:

I’m sticking on in a deserted flat with my family after we fled our house in Shuja’iya a week ago. [...]

I’m with my other nine brothers and parents in our flat. My married sister who was due to deliver imminently came with her other two kids to stay with us. She was in labour yesterday and we had to take her to Shifa hospital, the solely operating hospital in entire Gaza by now. We tried a few private hospitals, they were all shut down.

The ambulance man at Shifa hospital turned down our request to transfer my sister to the hospital, blaming the intense Israeli army shooting against any moving car in the street. He told us that we needed to bring her by our private car and bear the high risk. As we were waiting for my uncle who volunteered to take my sister to the hospital, she delivered her baby in the stairwell. We were in mighty panic to see the baby screaming underneath my sister while he was still tied to his mother.

We did not know what to do. My uncle arrived just in time and took my sister to the hospital only to cut the umbilical cord. There was no single lancet in the hospital which was crammed with dead and wounded, the doctor used a razor instead. My sister had to stay in Shifa overnight to avoid the grave shooting near the hospital.

Yesterday, there was a talk of another truce and my father was all set to run again to Shuja’iya in a bid to recover more bodies, but the truce never took place. We are still hopping that we might find one of my relatives miraculously alive.

A dispatch from the Cairo ceasefire talks from the Guardian’s Patrick Kingsley (@patrickkingsley), where the Egyptians feel increasing pressure to broker an agreement.

“Representatives of all the major Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are here in Cairo as part of the same negotiating delegation in a sign of unity that diplomatic sources feel makes an unconditional ceasefire closer, but not imminent, Patrick writes:

“A representative from Hamas is part of the official Palestinian delegation and of course that’s a positive step,” said one Cairo-based diplomat. “This is more or less what should have been done from the beginning – if you want something sustainable, you need all sides represented. The reason people couldn’t find a solution before was because they couldn’t get all sides to the table.”

Crucially, the Egyptian hosts feel under greater pressure to secure a deal during this round of negotiations, in order to maintain their traditional brokerage role in the conflict. Having previously appeared to rule out easing Gaza’s blockade along its own borders, Egyptian officials are displaying increased willingness to open the issue up for negotiation – a significant concession that in turn might help convince Hamas to down arms.

“I think the Egyptians understand that the negotiations have already gone out of Cairo once,” said one informed source. “If they leave Cairo twice, they may not come back again.”

At least 19 people have been killed and 90 were injured in the early hours of Wednesday after Israeli shells hit a UN girls’ school being used as a shelter. A spokeswoman for the Israel Defence Forces said that its initial inquiries showed that “Hamas militants fired mortar shells from the vicinity of the school, and [Israeli] soldiers responded by firing towards the origins of the fire”.

A delegation including the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main militant factions in Gaza, was due to take part in ceasefire talks in Cairo.

Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, condemned “in the strongest possible terms [...] this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces”. He said: [T]his is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.”

The IDF announced a “partial” ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid in Gaza between 3-7pm local time. But aid workers said the window was not long enough and would not encompass areas where Israel was carrying out ground operations – currently around 50% of Gaza.

Announcing the new aid, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said:

After more than three weeks of fighting, the death toll in Gaza is rising and more than 200,000 people, many of them children, have been displaced from their homes. We urgently need to stop the bloodshed: we continue to call for an unconditional and immediate humanitarian ceasefire to prevent any more needless suffering.

The situation in Gaza is dire. The UK is helping to meet immediate needs, including with this latest contribution of £3 million which will get food to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people.

All sides must adhere to international humanitarian law, all feasible precautions must be taken to avoid harm to civilians, and all sides must allow aid agencies unimpeded access to get to those in desperate need.

The Press Association have a story on the prime minister’s announcement that the UK government will be giving an extra £3m in aid to Gaza, adding that it was “heart-rending watching these scenes on our television”. PA reports:

The Prime Minister announced an extra £3 million aid for Gaza today as he again called for an unconditional ceasefire to stop the conflict.

David Cameron said Britain had already given £7 million in aid but, questioned about the conflict at an event today, added: “And I can announce today we are going to give an further £3 million of aid to help make sure the people in Gaza have the basic necessities of life, the food, the shelter and the assistance that they need.”

He again repeated the call for both Israel and Hamas to put down their weapons - but blamed Hamas for breaking ceasefires.

“We should be very clear that we want an unconditional, immediate, humanitarian ceasefire that applies to everybody,” he said.

“What we are seeing happening in Gaza is completely tragic and ghastly, the loss of life is appalling, it is heart-rending watching these scenes on our television.

“But while calling for an unconditional, immediate ceasefire, we do have to be clear about a couple of points.

“Yes, it is awful what is happening in Gaza and the loss of life, but we do have to remember, whenever we have had a ceasefire in the last few days, it has been a ceasefire that has been obeyed and observed by the Israelis but it has not been observed by Hamas.

“Hamas continue the rocket attacks that are not aimed at military targets or political targets. They are aimed, indiscriminately, into Israel in order to do the maximum damage they possibly can.

“And so we do have to understand that that has to stop in order for there to be a lasting ceasefire.”

The Prime Minister, speaking at a “Cameron Direct” question-and-answer session in Warrington, Cheshire, said he “worried” because the “facts on the ground” were “beginning to make a two-state solution impossible”.

The extra £3 million he announced today will fund an emergency food programme for Gaza’s 1.8 million population.

An estimated 1,200 Palestinians and 55 Israelis have been killed in the conflict.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after a surge in rocket fire from the territory.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, has said it will not stop fighting until a blockade on the area, maintained by both Israel and Egypt, is lifted.