Shelling of UN school kills 15 as Gaza war rages

JEBALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli tank shells slammed into a crowded U.N. school sheltering Gazans displaced by fighting today, killing 15 and wounding 90 after tearing through the walls of two classrooms, a spokesman for a U.N. aid agency and a health official said.

Israeli airstrikes and shelling also killed 40 Palestinians elsewhere in the coastal territory, including multiple members of two families struck in their homes, health officials said.

The Israeli military said mortar shells had been fired from near the school, and that soldiers fired back.

Later today, the military declared a four-hour humanitarian cease-fire in parts of Gaza beginning at 3 p.m., but Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said it lacked any "value" because it excluded border areas from where Hamas wanted to evacuate the wounded.

The Israeli military said forces were still working to demolish tunnels in certain areas of the Strip. It said at least two rockets were fired at Israel after its declaration to partially hold fire.

The latest violence further dimmed hopes of a sustainable truce in the fighting, now in its fourth week. The strike at the U.N. school in the Jebaliya refugee camp came on the heels of Israel's heaviest air and artillery assault so far in the conflict.