The Slatest

At Least 15 Reportedly Killed at U.N. Shelter in Gaza

Children at a Gaza hospital after abandoning the U.N. center that was struck.

REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly

At least 15 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in a United Nations Gaza refugee center today by what the Wall Street Journal says appear to have been tank shells presumably fired by Israel—though Israel has not yet acknowledged responsibility for the attack and suggested that errant Hamas rockets might have caused the bloodshed.

The shelter that was hit is one of 83 centers set up in Gaza by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians fleeing their homes to escape the fighting. The agency said the number of people in the shelters has risen sharply, from about 100,000 on Tuesday to 141,338 on Thursday—nearly 8% of the Gaza Strip’s 1.8 million people.

U.N. officials have found rockets hidden in Gaza refugee facilities twice during the current conflict, though both such facilities were vacant.