Israel declared a seven-hour humanitarian truce on Monday to allow relief aid to trickle into shell-shocked Gaza–but only 20 minutes after declaring the truce, a refugee camp was reportedly attacked, killing a little girl and wounding several others.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Ashraf el-Qedra said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an air strike on a house inside a refugee camp, killing an eight-year old girl and wounding at least 30 people, most of them children, CNN reported.
But this story was disputed by Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said they are reviewing the allegations.
“That’s not true,” Regev told CNN‘s Anderson Cooper. “When we give an order to our forces to hold fire, they hold fire. From 10 o’clock this morning local time, we have ceased all offensive operations against terror targets in Gaza except for specific locations such as Rafah.”
The ceasefire commenced at 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. E.T.) but IDF said it did not include certain areas around the town of Rafah, where a U.N.-run refugee camp was previously attacked, taking the lives of at least 10 people.
Meanwhile, France condemned Israel’s use of such brute force that is devastating the lives of children and civilians in Gaza, and called on the international community to impose a peace settlement on Israel and Hamas.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Israel’s right to defense “does not justify the killing of children and the massacre of civilians,” Fox News reported.
France is the latest country to condemn Israel’s onslaught in Gaza–a rare occurrence from an Israeli ally.
Fabius said a ceasefire followed by a two-state solution “should be imposed by the international community because, despite numerous attempts, the two sides have shown themselves to be incapable of concluding negotiations.”
