At least 15 people have been killed and more than 150 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a market, shortly after Israel said it was observing a humanitarian ceasefire. Medical officials said the strike hit a busy market in the Shejaiza neighbourhood between Gaza City and the Israeli border.
Israel had said it would halt assaults in areas of the coastal strip where troops were not "currently operating." Hamas responded by saying the lull had "no value".
Israel agreed to hold fire in Gaza after a night of heavy shelling left at least 43 people dead, including many at a United Nations school.
The school in Jebalya refugee camp, where aid workers say they are at "breaking point" helping some of the 200,000 people who have been displaced by the war, was hit around dawn.
At least 19 people - including a young child - were killed, many of them as they slept.
The Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has condemned the attacks on a UN school in Gaza. Speaking in Belfast, Mr Flanagan said the bombing was "utterly unacceptable".
It is also being reported that a Palestinian baby who was born after her mother was killed in an attack on Gaza has also now died.
The baby was born in an emergency Caesarean section after an Israeli airstrike on Sunday killed her mother (23), who was eight months pregnant.
But the girl – named Shimah after her mother – died on Tuesday in hospital.
"Today the world stands disgraced"
The Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Pierre Krähenbühl said "children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced".
"We have visited the site and gathered evidence. We have analysed fragments, examined craters and other damage. Our initial assessment is that it was Israeli artillery that hit our school, in which 3,300 people had sought refuge".
"We believe there were at least three impacts...These are people who were instructed to leave their homes by the Israeli army".
"The precise location of the Jabalia Elementary Girls School and the fact that it was housing thousands of internally displaced people was communicated to the Israeli army 17 times, to ensure its protection; the last being at 8:50pm last night, just hours before the fatal shelling".
"I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces" he added.
This was the sixth time a UN school had been struck.
Adbel Karim al Masamha, who came to Jebalya with his family to seek refuge, said "People were martyred before our eyes. They were dismembered".
Another refugee, Haleema Ghabin, added "No place is safe, neither homes nor schools. We are defenceless".
Jebalya was the second UN-run school to be hit in the past week, with a complex in Beit Hanoun struck last Thursday, killing at least 15 people. An Israeli defence spokesman said militants near the school fired mortars at soldiers before the attack.
On the 23rd day of the conflict, Israeli TV said progress was being made to achieve a peace deal, with a Palestinian delegation expected to arrive in Egypt for discussions.
Smoke rises from the only power plant in Gaza | Image: @ChrisGunness via Twitter
Earlier, thick black smoke could be seen rising from blazing fuel tanks at Gaza's only power station, which was knocked out on the bloodiest day of the conflict so far.
At least 128 Palestinians were killed as Israel sought to destroy what it called Hamas "terror sites" with heavy fire from the air, land and sea. It says its ongoing operation is meant to stop Hamas rocket fire and demolish a sophisticated network of tunnels.
More than 2,600 missiles have been fired from Gaza in the past three weeks, the Israeli army said.
Meanwhile, the leader of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, issued a rare statement saying there will be no end to the fighting until the blockade of Gaza is lifted.
According to UNRWA, about 10% of Palestinians - more than 200,000 people - have been displaced by fighting. The figure is triple that seen at the peak of the 2008/2009 conflict, with the organisation warning all of its camps are now full.
More than 1,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the offensive on July 8th. On the Israeli side, 56 soldiers and three civilians have died.
Dr Ramy Abdu is chairman of human rights organisation Euro-Mid. He spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime earlier from Shifa Hospital - the main hospital in Gaza.
Originally posted 07:51
