Israel agrees to allow aid to specified areas of Gaza

An Israeli strike near a U.N. school killed at least 30, many of them children.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel says it has agreed to set up a “humanitarian corridor” to ship vital supplies to the people of the Gaza Strip.

The office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says in a statement that the humanitarian corridor idea came from the U.N. Security Council, and he accepted it.

Under the plan, Israel would suspend attacks in specified areas of Gaza to allow the people to get supplies. The statement early today said the goal was to “prevent a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel insists it has allowed enough supplies into the territory during 11 days of conflict, but the U.N. says there is already a humanitarian crisis there because of shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

France and Egypt announced an initiative to stop the fighting in Gaza late Tuesday.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner released no details of the cease-fire plan, saying at the U.N. Security Council that the presidents of his country and Egypt were awaiting a response from Israel.

Israeli mortar shells struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge Tuesday, killing at least 30 people — many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded.

The Israeli army said its soldiers came under fire from militants hiding in the school and responded. It accused Gaza’s Hamas rulers of “cynically” using civilians as human shields. Residents confirmed the account, saying militants were seen staging attacks from the area.

Despite international criticism over civilian deaths and a diplomatic push to broker a cease-fire, Israel said it would push on with the offensive against Hamas.

Israeli ground forces edged closer to two major Gaza towns, and 70 Palestinians were killed Tuesday — with just two confirmed as militants, health officials in Gaza said. A top U.N. official called for an investigation into the civilian death toll.

Past Israeli ground offensives have been cut short when an errant shell or missile hit a civilian center, leading to international outcries that forced Israel to stand down.

The shelling Tuesday in the northern town of Jebaliya marked the second time in hours a U.N. school came under attack; three people were killed in an attack on another U.N. school in Gaza City on Monday night.

Tuesday’s assault was the deadliest since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend as part of a larger offensive against Hamas that has killed more than 600 Palestinians, according to local hospital officials. Nearly half of the dead are civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.

“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized,” John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the Monday night attack on the compound of a U.N. school. The school has served as a shelter for refugees fleeing the 11-day offensive.

A Palestinian rocket — one of two dozen fired from Gaza on Tuesday — wounded an Israeli infant.

Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said 36 people were killed in the Israeli strike on the U.N. school in Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed that 30 were killed and 55 injured by tank shells.