Attack on UNRWA school in Beit Lahiya – images

All photos by Iyad El-Baba, UNRWA, 20 January 2009

At 6:30am on the 17th of January 2009, the Israeli army fired a shell – believed to be white phosphorus – which landed in the UNRWA Beit Lahia Boys School, which was sheltering civilians. As the refugees tried to evacuate the school, an artillery shell struck a classroom, where civilians were being sheltered. The shell broke through the roof and exploded on the ground, spreading its shrapnel into classrooms. Two children were killed and their motherreported that UNRWA responded quickly and opened another school for them in the al-Nazla area in Jabaliya. Some refugees, however, returned to the same school, which sheltered 320 families (1,853 peop, Nujoud Shaban al-Ashqar, was injured. The Israeli army then fired another shell that hit the school and injured 14 refugees, including six children. The refugees escaped from the school and went to the Kamal Udwan Hospital in Beit Lahia seeking safe refuge. Al Mezan’s field worker le).