Israeli shell hits UN school in Gaza

GAZA CITY, July 24 (Agencies):  At least 15 people have been killed and more than 200 injured when a UN-run school used as a shelter in Gaza was shelled, the Gaza health ministry says.
Hundreds of Palestinians were in the school in Beit Hanoun, fleeing heavy fighting in the area.
It is the fourth time that a UN facility has been hit in Israel's offensive against Hamas militants.
In the past 16 days of fighting, more than 750 Palestinians and 32 Israelis have been killed, officials say.
It was the latest in a number of Israeli strikes on schools and hospitals in the embattled Palestinian territory, as the death toll from a 17-day operation to halt rocket fire by Gaza militants topped 770.
A spokesman for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA separately confirmed "multiple dead and injured" at the school in Beit Hanun, which was being used as a shelter by hundreds of Palestinians fleeing a major Israeli operation in the area.
"Precise coordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanun had been formally given to the Israeli army," Chris Gunness said on his Twitter account.
AFP's correspondent saw nine bodies, including those of a one-year-old child and his mother at a morgue in nearby Beit Lahiya.
Trails and splashes of blood could be seen at the site of the shelling.
Another UN official told AFP that at around 2:50 pm (1150 GMT) a shell had landed "in or near" the school, adding that UNRWA had tried to ask people to leave shortly beforehand, fearing it might be a target.
"We were talking to the shelter asking them to leave, as we feared it was a potential target," the official said.
Gunness said there had earlier been "firing around the compound," and asked the army for time to evacuate civilians.
"We've spent much of the day trying to negotiate or to coordinate a window so that civilians, including our staff, could leave.
"That was never granted... and the consequences of that appear to be tragic," Gunness told AFP.