By: SARAH DEAN
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
A hardened United Nations official accustomed to working amidst the devastation of war broke down live on air on Wednesday as the bloody horror of the Gaza conflict took its toll.
The heartbreaking moment war zone veteran Christopher Gunness collapsed into uncontrollable tears came after an Israeli attack on a school based inside a refuge camp in North Gaza.
Around 20 men, women and children were killed and more than 100 civilians were injured.
An Al Jazeera interview with Mr Gunness was cut short as he became visibly distressed.
A hardened United Nations official accustomed to working amidst the devastation of war broke down live on air on Wednesday as the bloody horror of the Gaza conflict took its toll.
The heartbreaking moment war zone veteran Christopher Gunness collapsed into uncontrollable tears came after an Israeli attack on a school based inside a refuge camp in North Gaza.
Around 20 men, women and children were killed and more than 100 civilians were injured.
An Al Jazeera interview with Mr Gunness was cut short as he became visibly distressed.
He managed to utter the words ‘my pleasure’ before a colleague rushed over to comfort him.
The camera panned away from him as he wailed and the colleague tried to reassure him ‘it’s OK’.
The victims of the Jabalia Elementary Girls School attack in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, who had fled their homes after warnings from Israel’s military and were sheltering in the school, were killed on Wednesday morning when two classrooms were destroyed.
Mr Gunness, the senior director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, told Aljezeera ‘the rights of Palestinians and even their children are denied and it’s appalling’.
UN officials said they had told the Israeli military 17 times that the school in Gaza’s biggest refugee camp was a shelter for Palestinian civilians fleeing fighting in the coastal strip.
After his emotional interview Mr Gunness pleaded for the violence to stop on Twitter.
‘UNRWA is overwhelmed in #Gaza we have reached breaking point, our staff are being killed our shelters overflowing. Where will it end? RT,‘ he wrote.
The United States has joined the United Nations in condemning Israel after tank shells tore apart the school
Last night, in a rare criticism of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, the White House said it was ‘extremely concerned’ that thousands of Palestinians were not safe even in UN-designated shelters.
Spokesman Bernadette Meehan said: ‘This violence underscores the need to achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible.’
Later on Wednesday, 15 Palestinians were killed and 160 wounded in an Israeli air strike which blew apart a busy market in Shejaiya.
The air strike happened during a four-hour ceasefire, which Israel later claimed applied only to areas where its soldiers were not already operating.
Speaking about the warnings that the school was being used as a shelter, Pierre Krahenbuhl, head of the United Nations Relief And Works Agency (UNRWA), said the last notification was given just hours before the pre-dawn attack.
‘I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces,’ he said last night.
Israel claimed that mortar shells had been fired from near the school, and that its soldiers fired back.
‘Five Israeli tank shells struck the people and killed many of them as they slept,’ added Khalil al-Halabi, director of UNRWA’s northern Gaza operations.
‘Those people came to the school because it is a designated UN shelter.’
Assad Sabah said he and his five children were huddling under desks in one of the classrooms because of the constant sound of tank fire throughout the night. ‘We were scared to death,’ he said.
‘After 4.30am, tanks started firing more. Three explosions shook the school. One classroom collapsed over the head of the people who were inside.’
The front wall of the classroom was blown out, leaving debris and bloodied clothing. Another strike tore a large hole in the ceiling of a second-floor classroom.
At the edge of the schoolyard, some 20 donkeys lay dead, still tied to railings.
Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has described Wednesday’s attack as ‘outrageous’ and ‘unjustifiable’
Abdel-Karim al-Masamha, 27, said he and his family had gone to the school after fleeing fighting near their home in the northern Gaza Strip.
‘We did not find safety here,’ he said. ‘People were dismembered.’
Yesterday the UK announced it was stepping up its humanitarian response to the Gaza crisis with an additional £3million for the World Food Programme’s emergency appeal to help deal with food shortages.
The money will provide emergency food for more than 300,000 people for one month and brings to £10million the amount released to help Gaza since the crisis began.
International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: ‘After more than three weeks, the death toll in Gaza is rising and more than 200,000 people, many of them children, have been displaced from their homes. We urgently need to stop the bloodshed.’
Palestinian children lay on the floor of the school where 3,300 Gazans were seeking shelter when it was hit
One young boy ate a snack while he sheltered at the refugee camp from the ongoing fighting on Gaza strip
Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm at the discovery of rockets at schools used by UNRWA.
The bombardment in Gaza continued on Wednesday with Israeli air strikes and shelling killing 40 Palestinians elsewhere in the coastal territory.
Five mosques that Israel says were being used by militants were also hit.
