Israel shells Gaza U.N. warehouse, hospital, media offices

[CptSternn]

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military punched deeper into Gaza City on Thursday with a series of strikes that hit the United Nations' headquarters, a major hospital and the offices of international media groups.

As Israeli leaders weighed an evolving Egyptian initiative that's considered the best hope for ending the 20-day-old conflict, Israeli forces delivered another blow to the Hamas -led Gaza Strip .

For the first time in the offensive, Israel killed a top Hamas political leader in the Gaza Strip . Late Thursday, an Israeli air strike hit Said Siam, who served as interior minister after Hamas won control of the territory in democratic elections in 2006.

The most spectacular strike Thursday came when Israeli forces opened fire on the U.N. compound in Gaza City and set off an uncontrollable blaze that sent a pillar of charcoal-black smoke hundreds of feet into the sky.

Israeli forces hit the compound as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was preparing to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Tel Aviv .

Ban said that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had apologized for the attack.

"The defense minister said to me it was a grave mistake, and he took it very seriously," Ban said before meeting with Livni to discuss U.N. efforts to bring the fighting to an immediate end.

Israeli officials, however, later issued contradictory versions of why Israeli forces fired on the U.N. compound. An anonymous Israeli military official first told the Associated Press that Gaza militants had fired anti-tank weapons and machine guns from inside the compound.

Then Israeli officials came forward to say that preliminary results showed that the militants ran for safety inside the U.N. compound after firing on Israeli forces from outside.

Chris Gunness , a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency dismissed the Israeli claims as "baseless" and challenged Israeli officials to produce evidence to support their version of events.

Relations between the U.N. and Israel have been strained by Israeli attacks in Gaza that have killed United Nations staff members, students and refugees seeking refuge in temporary shelters. In the worst such incident, 43 Palestinians were killed last week when an Israeli strike hit a U.N. school where hundreds had sought safety.

Then, as now, Israeli officials initially claimed that Hamas militants had fired from inside the school. After the U.N. denied that charge, Israel said that its soldiers had fired at Hamas militants who were firing mortars near the school.

On Thursday, Gunness said that Israel's shifting stories raise questions about Israeli officials' veracity.

"With every flip-flop, Israel's credibility is severely undermined," he said.

Israeli forces also hit a Red Crescent hospital where more than 100 staff and patients were trapped as a blaze engulfed the administration building.

"It is unacceptable that wounded people receiving treatment in hospitals are put at risk," said Jakob Kellenberger , the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross .

Another Israeli strike hit several high-rise buildings, including one that houses the Reuters news service's office.

Reuters had given the Israeli military the location of its office before the fighting broke out last month. On Thursday, as Israeli forces moved in, Reuters staffers said they called the Israeli military to remind them where they were.

Two minutes after they made the call, a shell hit their office, the Reuters staff reported.

The Associated Press reported that gunfire hit its office in a separate building.

Thursday's attacks came as Israeli negotiator Amos Gilad met with Egyptian diplomats who're trying to broker an end to the fighting that's claimed nearly 1,100 Palestinian lives so far.

While Hamas leaders have said they back the Egyptian plan in principle, they haven't agreed to the details.

Egypt has proposed halting the fighting temporarily to allow mediators to draw up a longer-term cease-fire deal, but crafting a workable plan could prove difficult.

Israel has said it would end the military operation when Hamas halts persistent rocket fire aimed at southern Israeli cities and world leaders ensure that the hard-line Islamist forces running Gaza aren't able to smuggle more weapons in through tunnels under the Gaza - Egypt border.

Hamas has refused to concede defeat and vowed to keep fighting until Israel agrees to allow a normal flow of aid and supplies into Gaza .

Egyptian, Israeli and Hamas leaders all have suggested in recent days that a deal is within reach.

More Palestinians have been killed so far in Israel's offensive than in any single year this decade. Some 40 percent of the more than 1,000 dead are women and children, according to Palestinian medical officials.

More than 4,500 people reportedly have been wounded as Israeli forces have taken aim at densely populated civilian areas that military officials say Hamas fighters use as cover. On the Israeli side, 13 people have died, 10 of them soldiers.

As Israeli soldiers clamped down Thursday on Gaza City , thousands of residents fled their homes looking for safety, many in their nightclothes.

In response to the strike on media offices in Gaza City , the Foreign Press Association in Israel denounced Israel's "unconscionable breach" and urged members not to distribute or broadcast photos or video that the Israeli military gave them until there was a formal apology.

Since early November, Israel has imposed a near-blanket ban on international reporters entering Gaza , a decision that the press association, including McClatchy , is challenging.

Israel's high court directed Israel to allow reporters into Gaza during the fighting, but the Israel Defense Forces have refused to do anything more than take selected journalists on short embeds with troops.

"The FPA rejects and condemns the IDF policy of controlling the news coverage of the events in Gaza ," the association said Thursday in a statement. "By preventing the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza and bombing buildings housing offices of international media — contrary to IDF assurances that these media buildings would be safe — the IDF is severely violating basic principles of respect for press freedom."

The Israeli campaign has forced tens of thousands of Gazans from their homes with nowhere for them to go, collapsed Gaza's health system and cut off huge sections of the territory from water, electricity and medical care, nine human rights groups have said.

In a joint statement, the groups — including the Israeli sections of Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights — said Wednesday that, "This kind of fighting constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of warfare and raises the suspicion, which we ask be investigated, of the commission of war crimes."

Israeli officials have said that their forces don't intentionally target civilians, and they reject allegations that they've violated international laws.