Ten-year-old child killed in UNRWA school in Gaza – UNRWA press release

10-YEAR OLD CHILD KILLED IN

UNRWA SCHOOL IN GAZA

Gaza-

Noran Iyad Deeb, a pupil at the Rafah Elementary Co-Ed “B” School run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), was shot and killed today while lining up in the school yard for afternoon assembly. She was ten years old.

A second girl, Aysha Isam El-Khatib was injured in the hand by a second bullet fired at the same time.

At the time of the incident, firing had been heard from the direction of the Israeli-controlled border area. The school’s teaching staff were attempting to clear the children from the school yard when Noran was hit. The bullet hit her in the face.

This is the fifth incident in the last two years in which children have been killed or seriously injured inside UNRWA school premises in the Gaza Strip. Two girls were killed in separate incidents in Rafah and Khan Younis last year and a little girl was permanently blinded in Khan Younis in March 2003.

UNRWA has repeatedly protested the Israeli military’s indiscriminate firing into civilian areas in the occupied Palestinian territory. Rafah Elementary Co-Ed “B” School, which is 800 metres from the border, has been hit on numerous occasions since the start of the conflict. This is the first time the shots have had tragic consequences.

Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, said: “Despite the hopeful signs of improvement in the situation we have again been reminded of the continuing danger to which innocent children are exposed by the realities of the occupation and the irresponsible use of arms.”

-Ends-