At least 17 people were killed and 160 were wounded after an Israeli air strike hit a market near Gaza City, Gaza health officials said on Wednesday.
Rockets landed in a busy fruit and vegetable market in Shejaiya, where hundreds of people are shopping, BBC reported. The attack came after Israel declared a four-hour ceasefire, which Hamas rejected and called “meaningless.”
The incident is just one of Israel’s several attacks on Wednesday after the truce was declared. An air strike also hit the southern city of Khan Younis where seven people were killed, officials said.
More than 1,300 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians and a fifth of whom are children, and 58 Israelis have been killed since the offensive was launched more than three weeks ago.
Meanwhile, another United Nations school in northern city of Jabaliya was reportedly shelled by Israeli forces who killed at least 20 people.
In a report on The New York Times, air strikes showered the U.N.’s Jabaliya refugee camp, a shelter for more than 3,000 Palestinians–at around 5 a.m. on Wednesday.
At least four shells were said to hit the compound, one hit the street in front of the school entrance and two others hit classrooms where people were sleeping.
It is the latest in the series of offensives against U.N. facilities. Last week, Israeli forces also attacked a school compound in Beit Hanoun leaving 16 dead and dozens injured.
According to Robert Turner, Gaza director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency, there have been at least five to seven attacks on the agency’s facilities since the ground operations began on July 17. At least 200,000 people have sought protection in 85 of U.N.’s shelters.
This prompted U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to push for an unconditional, humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas militants but all to no avail.
