A 10-year-old Palestinian girl was shot in the head and critically wounded by Israeli army gunfire while sitting in the classroom of a United Nations school in the central Gaza Strip, U.N. officials said Wednesday. Raghda Adnan al-Assar was seated at her desk during morning classes Tuesday when she was shot, according to a statement from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Al-Assar was a student at an UNRWA school in the Khan Younis refugee camp. Hospital officials said al-Assar remained in critical condition after major surgery. UNRWA said it was the third time a child sitting in a U.N. classroom has been hit by random Israeli army fire. On June 1, two 10-year-old boys were hit by army fire at an UNRWA school in the southern town of Rafah. In March 2003, 12-year-old Khan Younis resident Hoda Darwish was shot in the head by Israeli army fire, leaving her blind, the statement said. UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen condemned the shooting and said his agency will file a complaint with the Israeli army. "The kind of live firing into refugee camps that is so indiscriminate that it makes classrooms dangerous for 10-year-old children is totally unacceptable," Hansen said. UNRWA provides education and other humanitarian services to Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East.
