Wall Street Journal reports:
The fighting this week has pushed living conditions in Gaza to a crisis point, according to the U.N. and international relief organizations. Israeli fire destroyed Gaza's only power plant on Tuesday, leaving much of the territory without electricity. The outage has disabled sewage pumps, causing waste to run in city streets. The fighting has also disrupted water treatment systems.
"Our shelters are overflowing," said Pierre Krahenbuhl, Unrwa's commissioner-general. "Tens of thousands may soon be stranded in the streets of Gaza without food, water and shelter if attacks on these areas continue."
About 3,300 people were crowded into the shelter at the Jabalia Elementary Girls School in northern Gaza when three blasts tore through the building just before dawn, leaving floors and mattresses in classrooms smeared with blood and strewed with children's shoes.
"Children were killed as they slept next to their parents," said Mr. Krahenbuhl. A guard at the school was killed. Mr. Krahenbuhl condemned what he called a "serious violation of international law by Israeli forces."
...
Without power to charge their cellphones or watch TV, many Palestinians got only limited information about Israel's four-hour humanitarian pause in the fighting on Wednesday, which a Hamas spokesman dismissed as a "media stunt."
Guy Inbar, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said Arabic-speaking Israeli officials gave two interviews—one on Palestinian Ma'an network, the other on BBC Arabic—explaining that the truce didn't apply to areas of ongoing combat. They specifically named Shujaiyeh, where the market was hit, as a no-go zone.
It wasn't immediately clear what hit the fruit and vegetable market and nearby fuel station, sending up a cloud of black smoke.
Among the dead was Rami Rayan, a journalist with the Palestinian Network for Journalism and Media.
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