Featured News IDF Kill 10-Year-Old Palestinian Girl at Refugee School PM Condemns the ‘War Crime,’ UN the Israeli Indiscriminate Gunfire 01/02/2005 Palestine Media Center – PMC Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei condemned as a “war crime” the killing of a 10-year-old Palestinian girl by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) at an UNRWA-run school in the southern Gaza Strip Monday, which provoked a retaliation that threatened a de facto truce at a time when a former Palestinian security and Israel’s “defense” minister were holding their second “security” meeting in a week. Noran Iyad Deeb died instantly after being shot in the head by Isareli occupation soldiers from an observation post on the border with Egypt, Palestinian medical sources said. “She suddenly screamed and fell to the ground, bleeding. The school girls started to run everywhere,” one witness said. A second girl, aged seven, was also shot in the hand, the sources said. “Two girls fell to the ground, one was hit in the head and the other in the hand,” teacher Mazen al-Ghandour told Reuters. The dead girl’s mother questioned the official reports on a ceasefire. “We heard Abu Mazen (President Mahmoud Abbas) talking about redeployment. We heard talk about a cease-fire. But it seems there is nothing like that on the ground,” she said. “My daughter was lovely. Today she went to school earlier than usual. She said she wanted to play with her schoolmates before class.” The UNRWA elementary school in the Brazil neighborhood of the Rafah refugee camp is located around half a mile (800 meters) from the Israeli-manned border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Sources at the school said youngsters had been queuing up in schoolyard when the shooting occurred. Palestinian Prime Minister Qurei, who is in Gaza, called the killing of the schoolgirl a “war crime” committed while Palestinians were making efforts to maintain calm. “This is a crime and sends a bad message to the whole world,” he told reporters in Gaza City. UNRWA Condemns Israeli Indiscriminate Gunfire UN officials said the incident was the fifth time in two years in which children had been killed or seriously wounded by Israeli soldiers at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip. Two girls were killed in similar shootings in Rafah and Khan Yunis last year. UNRWA condemned what it called “the Israeli military’s indiscriminate firing into civilian areas.” “UNRWA has repeatedly protested the Israeli military’s indiscriminate firing into civilian areas in the occupied Palestinian territory,” the agency said in a statement. Paul McCann, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which administers the school, said it was not the first time schoolchildren had fallen victim to the conflict. “This is the fifth occasion in which children in our schools have been hurt,” he said. McCann also said a student has been blinded and another wounded in the violence. Outgoing director-general of UNRWA, Peter Hansen, said: “Despite the hopeful signs of improvement in the situation, we have again been reminded of the continuing danger to which innocent children are exposed by the realities of the occupation and the irresponsible use of arms.” Palestinian Retaliation, Threat Palestinian retaliation to the girl’s slaying was swift. At least 10 mortar shells were reportedly fired at the nearby illegal Jewish colony of Gush Katif, damaging a building. No Israelis were hurt. Citing a list of Israeli military “aggressions,” eight Palestinian anti-occupation factions accused Israel of violating a cooling-down period negotiated by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which they agreed to suspend attacks. “The enemy has challenged our quiet period by its continued aggression. We cannot allow the Zionist enemy to continue its daily violations without an answer,” the factions said in a statement. Dahlan, Mofaz Hold Security Talks Meanwhile, former Palestinian security chief Mohammad Dahlan and Israeli “defense” minister Shaul Mofaz held their second “security” meeting in a week late Monday over a planned transfer of security control in several West Bank towns, which the IOF reoccupied in 2002. The towns to be handed over are reportedly Ramallah, Jericho, Tulkarem, Bethlehem and Qalqiliya. The larger cities of Nablus and Hebron as well as Jenin are to remain occupied. Media reports said that Dahlan asked Israel to reopen border crossings that were closed recently. Mofaz responded that Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be reopened on Tuesday. It was closed on December 12 with thousands of Palestinians stranded, unable to go home. However, Mofaz said the vital Karni point, the main crossing for food and other goods in and out of Gaza, would remain closed until the Palestinians “improve security measures” there.