Probe Israel for shelling Gaza site, U.N. says

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Explosion recounted
Ahmad Samouni said a missile slammed into the door. The explosion threw him to the ground and he heard another two loud bangs, he said.

With the dust still swirling, he recalled fleeing in terror from the building, shouting to those still alive to follow him and leaving behind the bodies of his mother and at least eight other relatives.

In Meysa Samouni's account, the clan stayed there Sunday night without food or drink. In the morning, two relatives opened the door to search for other family members.

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"The moment they left the house, a missile or shell hit them. Muhammed was killed on the spot, and the others were injured from shrapnel," she said, according to the transcript. "My husband went over to them to help, and then a shell or missile was fired onto the roof."

Ahmad Samouni said that when he lifted his head, he saw a gruesome sight: his mother's face was ripped off, his cousin was burned beyond recognition, and his sister-in-law's back was ripped open. Other relatives lay in heaps. Samouni said he counted nine unmoving bodies.

His face covered with blood and dust, Samouni said he stood and screamed "'Whoever is alive, come outside. If we raise our hands up, they won't shoot us, but we have to go.'"

Samouni said about 40 relatives walked out, many with hands raised. He said Israeli forces, watching them from nearby rooftops and positions on the ground, allowed them to pass, neither helping nor attacking them.

They made their way to the center of town, to the hospital or to other relatives.

The bodies of at least one Samouni man and his three children killed in the explosion were found in a Gaza City hospital. Desperate relatives pleaded with doctors to send rescue teams to find their kin in the rubble.

Red Cross: Israeli delays 'unacceptable'
On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva accused Israel of "unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach three Gaza City homes hit by shelling, where they eventually found 15 dead and 18 wounded, including young children too weak to stand.

The Red Cross statement referred to the same Zeitoun neighborhood, but it was unclear if it involved the incident with the Samouni clan, or if it was the same building.

The rescue team "found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up," the statement said. "In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses" in one of the buildings, it added.

"The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded," the Red Cross said. "Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."

The Israeli military said it is closely cooperating with international aid groups to assist civilians caught in the crossfire.

"The Israel Defense Forces are engaged in a battle with the Hamas terrorist organization that has deliberately used Palestinian civilians as human shields," a military statement said. "The IDF in no way intentionally targets civilians and has demonstrated its willingness to abort operations to save civilian lives and to risk injury in order to assist innocent civilians."

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