GAZA CITY, 1 February 2005 — Testing a fragile truce, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed by Israeli tank fire on the grounds of a United Nations school in a southern Gaza Strip refugee camp, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
The incident occurred in the Rafah refugee camp, a frequent flashpoint of violence between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen during four years of fighting. The Israeli Army said it had no information on a shooting in the area, but said it would open an investigation in coordination with the Palestinians.
Shortly after the shooting, the Hamas group claimed that it had fired five mortar rounds at the a Jewish settlement in Gaza in retaliation. Settlers reported two explosions in the Neve Dekalim settlement, causing damage to one home. Palestinian and UN officials said Norhan Deeb was hit in the head as she and other pupils lined up in the schoolyard for the assembly, and that a second girl was wounded in the incident.
