The top U.N. official in Gaza said on Thursday that there were no militants in the U.N. compound that was shelled twice Thursday morning by the Israeli Forces. “There were no militants in the compound, there was no firing from the compound,” said John Ging, head of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), who was in the compound when the attacks took place. The shelling resulted in the injuries of three U.N. staff and the destruction of food, medicine, and fuel aid. Ging, who was speaking to reporters at U.N headquarters in New York via videolink from Gaza, said there were two separate attacks about one hour apart. “Within one hour of the first rounds landing we had six more rounds landing,” Ging said, adding that he believed the second series of shelling, which set an UNRWA warehouse ablaze, consisted of shells which contained the incendiary agent white phosphorous. “It smelled like white phosphorous, it looked like white phosphorous, it burned like white phosphorous. That's why I'm calling it white phosphorous,” Ging said. The Geneva Convention of 1980 prohibits the use of white phosphorus as a weapon of war in civilian areas. The U.N.'s coordinator for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, also said on Thursday morning that three hospitals in Gaza had been shelled overnight, and two of the hospitals, the Al Quds and the European hospitals, were surrounded by the Israeli army making it impossible for people to go in or out of the hospital. Holmes also said that the death toll from the 20-day Israeli offensive had risen to 1,086, which included 346 children and 79 women. There have been 4,900 people wounded, so far, including 1709 children and 724 women, he added. The U.N. Security Council was briefed on the shelling by the deputy head of the U.N. political department, Haile Menkerios, and its members expressed "grave concern" about the situation, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said. ”We are calling on all parties to respect humanitarian law and especially to ensure the protection of civilians,” Ripert, this month's council president, told reporters.
