The American Pundit

Via Michelle Malkin, it’s an unfortunate scenario but the school appears to have been allowing terrorists to attack Israeli troops from its grounds:

An Israeli official says Palestinian militants fired on Israeli soldiers from the courtyard of a U.N. school where dozens of people died in fiery explosions.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he said the army is still drafting the country’s official response to the incident.

Palestinian medics said 34 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside a U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured.

The Israeli official said “hostile fire” was directed at the soldiers from within the school. He said soldiers returned fire and multiple explosions went off, presumably emanating from munitions stored there.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first incident of terrorists using innocents as human shields. Hamas members were reported to have been dressing up as doctors and nurses in hospitals in order to protect themselves. Michelle also links to this from the 2006 war.

As for today’s incident, here’s what the Israeli embassy has to say:

Earlier today, upwards of 35 Palestinian civilians were reportedly killed in two unfortunate accidents in Gaza, one at a school run by UNRWA and the second at an apartment in Gaza City. These deaths are indeed a tragedy, and investigations are underway to ensure that further operations continue to avoid civilian casualties.

These initial investigations indicate that Hamas used the UNRWA school to fire at IDF forces, indicating once again that Hamas is more than willing to sacrifice Gaza citizens to promote terrorism. International law recognizes that the presence of civilians in an area of conflict does not delegitimize a military target. Israel and the IDF will continue to abide by these laws and to make every effort to avoid harming civilians in conducting further operations. We urge the international community to strongly condemn Hamas’s cynical exploitation of its citizens and firing of rockets, which remain the most effective way to ensure peace for Gazans and Israelis alike.

And here’s the video of an Israeli spokesman saying that an investigation appears to have found the presence of explosives and ammunition within the school.

Just a cover-up? Consider this: Reuters did a story on the headmaster of the UN school in Gaza building explosives for jihadists at night.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 5 (Reuters) – By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, Palestinian militants say, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli air strike that killed the 33-year-old last week also laid bare his apparent double life and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state.

So it’s not exactly impossible that the school was housing explosives and ammuntion, in addition to allowing militants to fire on the Israelis from its grounds.

More: Jules Crittenden, Harry’s Place, Lawhawk, and Gateway Pundit.

Update: Oy vey:

(Barack) Obama and the team he has chosen might be more willing to accept the type of arrangement that many believe is needed to relieve the suffering in Gaza and figure out a political solution. That will likely involve giving Hamas some face-saving partial authority role in the crowded territory it seized in 2007 after winning elections. That alone might end the blockade of Gaza that has frustrated the hopes of Palestinians there, who have long had little ability to work or move about or live normal lives. That anger and dismay has boosted support for Hamas.

Supporters of such a policy, including many Europeans, think it is the only way to lure Hamas toward eventual political accommodation with Israel, whose right to exist is rejected by the militants.

Update X2: According to an IDF spokesperson, both anti-tank missiles and the bodies of two Hamas militants have been found in the wreckage of that UN school.