My Brother's Keeper: Month 2, Week 2, Day 4.

In the past 24 hours the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have continued offensive operations in the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia along with the the suburb of Shejayia in western Gaza City. In this time they have struck over 100 targets including a bunker network used co-ordinate Hamas' online propaganda operations which you have no doubt been exposed to via Twitter and other social media even if you may not have realised it.

The most notable event of the day has been an incident in which a United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) school in Jabalia which was being used as a civilian shelter came under fire. At least 19 people were killed in this incident and more then 500 people were injured. This prompted the UNRWA to release a very strongly worded statement which can be read here; http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-strongly-condemns-israeli-shelling-its-school-gaza-serious

This statement makes it quite clear that the UNRWA blames the IDF entirely for the incident and goes on to imply that the IDF deliberately targeted the school by declaring it to be "serious violation of international law by Israeli forces." Fortunately the statement goes on to make clear that the UNRWA has dropped any pretence of being an impartial humanitarian organisation and intends to act as a partisan political organisation against Israel with the phrase; "We have moved beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. We are in the realm of accountability. I call on the international community to take deliberate international political action."

The UNRWA claim that the school was struck by Israeli artillery fire (most likely from a tank) and unlike when they made a similar claim about a school in Beit Hanoun last Thursday (24/7/14) that does seem to be supported by the type of damage done to the building. However if you look in more detail at the incident it is clear that a Hamas mortar team were operating close to the school. From this position they engaged an IDF unit who returned fire. It appears that no more then three of those shells missed their intended target and struck the school.

This of course raises the very serious question of why the UNRWA thought it was appropriate to gather more then 3000 civilians in Jabalia. Due to the known risk that between 5-10% of shells fired will miss their targets prior to beginning their operation in Jabalia the IDF dropped leaflets, sent out SMS messages and made hundreds of phone calls instructing civilians to leave the area and seek shelter in the designated safe zone on central Gaza City which is less then 1.5km (0.9miles) away. I covered this in extensive detail in my previous post. As such it seems highly curious that the UNRWA would tell local civilians to disregard the IDF's instructions and seek shelter in the school. No doubt this point was raised by the IDF on the 17 occasions they were in contact with UNRWA.

Due to their decision to slow down the tempo of the operation by breaking the Gaza Strip into combat zones and non-combat safe zones specifically to minimise the risk to civilians this operation is looking on course to be the IDF's longest engagement since the first Lebanon war. However following the incident at the Jabalia school the IDF decided to slow its operations down even further by declaring a four hour humanitarian pause. It was made quite clear that this was not a ceasefire, that the IDF would continue to fire if fired upon and civilians should make no attempt to return to areas that were declared combat zones. The sole purpose of this pause appears to have been to allow UNRWA to get its act together and evacuate civilians from the declared combat zones in the north and around Khan Yunis in the south. As a result it may have been sensible to keep this announcement amongst the IDF and the small group of relief agencies rather then shouting it from the roof tops.

Residents in the Shejayia district were clearly confused by the announcement and took it to mean that they could head out on the streets to go shopping. As Shejayia is still one of the areas of the most intense fighting a crowd of these shoppers were struck by either a mortar or tank shell killing around 17. The reason why Shejayia is going to remain as a combat zone for a very long time is the area is being used as one of Hamas' main command centres where the majority of its weapons are stored and manufactured. Although the Gaza Strip is a very densely populated place you really have to ask why Hamas has chosen to set up its centre for operations in one of the most densely populated parts.

Hamas of course did not participate in the IDF's humanitarian pause and fired 26 rockets into Israel during the four hour period. That rocket fire continues as I write.

19:55 on 30/7/14 (UK date).