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15 Killed in Gaza Market Airstrike As Temporary Cease-Fire Passes

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Updated 1:22 pm ET

An Israeli airstrike on a busy market in Gaza has killed at least 15 and wounded 150 others, the Associated Press reports.

The strike occurred during a four-hour humanitarian cease-fire,which occurred between 3pm and 7pm local time, in the Gaza Strip. The market is situated within Shejaiya, an area which Israel said wasn’t protected by the parameters of its cease-fire.

A Gaza healthy ministry official, Ashraf al-Kidra, told the AP the Gazans shopping in the market believed they were protected.

In a statement released before the cease-fire, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the humanitarian window would “not apply to the areas in which IDF soldiers are currently operating” — among which is Shejaiya.

The IDF told residents not to return to areas which they were asked to evacuate, and warned “the IDF will respond to any attempt to exploit this window to harm Israeli citizens and Israeli soldiers.” During the cease-fire, the AP reports, Palestinian militants did fire rockets into Israel.

The IDF scheduled the cease-fire earlier Wednesday, after another night of heavy fighting between it and Hamas saw 15 people killed in the Israeli shelling of a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency said that Tuesday’s attack was the sixth time the IDF had struck a U.N. school during the current conflict. In a statement on their website they called the incident “an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.”

A spokesperson for the IDF told TIME: “The initial IDF investigation suggests that [Palestinian] militants fired mortar shells from the vicinity of the school,” to which the IDF responded. The spokesperson added that the investigation is ongoing.

The White House condemned the UN school shelling Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press reports, but did blame any party for it.

The shelling of the school happened during the 23rd day of operations in the Gaza strip which has so far seen over 1,258 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel has lost 56 in the fighting.

[AP]

Palestinian emergency personnel and civilians evacuate victims of an Israeli air strike on a market place in the Shejaiya neighborhood near Gaza City, on July 30, 2014.
Palestinian emergency personnel and civilians evacuate victims of an Israeli air strike on a market place in the Shejaiya neighborhood near Gaza City, on July 30, 2014.Marco Longari—AFP/Getty Images
Israeli airstrikes intensified over the Gaza Strip
Palestinians mourn the death of a relative, who died when a UN school used as a shelter for internally displace people came under Israeli shelling in the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, July 30, 2014. Oliver Weiken—EPA
TOPSHOTS-PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-GAZA
Palestinians collect human remains from a classroom inside a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp after the area was hit by shelling on July 30, 2014. Marco Longari—AFP/Getty Images
Israeli tanks shell UN school in Gaza Strip
A relative holds the hand of a Palestinian man, who was injured when a UN school used as a shelter for internally displace people came under Israeli shelling, at the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, July 30, 2014. Oliver Weiken—EPA
Palestinians look out from behind the doors at Kamal Edwan hospital where victims have been brought following an Israeli strike on a compound housing a UN school in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip early on July 30, 2014.
Palestinians look out from behind the doors at Kamal Edwan hospital where victims have been brought following an Israeli strike on a compound housing a UN school in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip early on July 30, 2014. Mohammed Abed—AFP/Getty Images
PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-GAZA
Palestinian civilians wounded during Israeli shelling of a U.N. school wait at the Kamal Odwan Hospital in northern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2014 Marco Longari—AFP/Getty Images
Gurneys are seen piled up outside the morgue at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2014.
Gurneys are seen piled up outside the morgue at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2014. Marco Longari—AFP/Getty Images
Palestinian mourners carry a body as they walk during a funeral procession past a UN school that was hit by Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp on July 30, 2014.
Palestinian mourners carry a body as they walk during a funeral procession past a UN school that was hit by Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp on July 30, 2014.Marco Longari—AFP/Getty Images
A Palestinian man battles a building on fire following several Israeli strikes on Gaza City on July 30, 2014.
A Palestinian man battles a building on fire following several Israeli strikes on Gaza City on July 30, 2014. Mohammed Abed—AFP/Getty Images
The collapsed minaret of mosque seen from the destroyed living room of a Palestinian family in a building across the street in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 30 July 2014.
The collapsed minaret of mosque seen from the destroyed living room of a Palestinian family in a building across the street in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, July 30, 2014. Oliver Weiken—EPA

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