Israel starts withdrawing troops, 10 dead in UN school attack

Jerusalem, Aug 3: Even as Israel began withdrawing some of its troops from Gaza, at least 10 people were killed and 30 injured on Sunday in a fresh strike on a UN school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the south of the strip.

Gaza's ministry of health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the attack on UN school left 30 persons injured in the southern city of Rafah, which straddles the border with Egypt.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that Operation Protective Edge was still "ongoing" but only undergoing "re-assessment and re-organisation" as per Israel's security needs. "The operation is not over, it is pretty much ongoing. We are only re-assessing and re-organising troops constantly based on our security needs", an IDF spokesman Capt Ronnie Kaplan told PTI.

Emphasising that IDF is "carefully evaluating the pros and cons of deployment in various areas of Gaza", Kaplan asserted that neutralising the "terror tunnels" is a priority and Israel will not withdraw till it is completed.

"We are still on alert", he added. Other security sources here estimated that the infiltration tunnels had been more or less identified and destroying them was a matter of "very few days". Nine members of a family were also killed in Israeli attacks in Rafah, taking the Palestinian death toll to 1,712, with more than 9,000 wounded in the 27-day conflict.

The dead include 398 children, 207 women and 74 elderly people, officials said. Meanwhile, missing IDF officer 2nd Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, said to have been captured by Hamas, was declared dead by Chief Military Rabbi Raffi Peretz and his funeral is scheduled for 4 PM today.

The Givati commander died on Friday in Rafah when his group came under attack by Gaza militants during a humanitarian ceasefire. Another officer and a soldier from Givati Brigade, Major Benaya Sarel and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni, were also killed in the attack aided by a suicide bomber. "Based on the evidence collected from the scene we reached the conclusion that the officer is dead.

We found some of his body parts in the tunnel", Kaplan said. Hamas had denied it was holding the 23-year-old Goldin captive, saying it did not know the soldier's whereabouts.

PTI