The
United States has called for an investigation into the deadly Israeli airstrike on a school building run by the
UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in central Gaza and told Israel it must be "fully transparent."
US State Department spokesman
Matthew Miller said on Thursday that even if Israel's army intended to target Hamas fighters, the claims of children killed in the strike "show that something went wrong."
Miller said it was Israel's right to target
Hamas fighters while also stressing the obligation to minimize civilian harm and take every possible step to do so.
He said the
United States had seen reports that 14 children were killed in the strike.
"If that is accurate that 14 children were killed, those aren't
terrorists," Miller said.
"These are
all facts that need to be verified, and that's what we want to see happen."
According to the
UNRWA, the school building in the refugee district of
Nuseirat was being used as an emergency shelter.
The health authority in
Gaza said that dozens of people were killed in the attack on Wednesday night and that most of the victims were women and children.
