REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GAZA/JERUSALEM - An Israeli air strike killed 10 people and wounded about 30 others on Sunday in a UN-run school in the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said, as dozens died in Israeli shelling of the enclave and Hamas fired rockets at Israel.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported attack, the second to hit a school in less than a week. Israeli media, on the 27th day of the fighting, reported that most Israeli troops had pulled out of Gaza, and Reuters TV footage showed a column of Israeli tanks and dozens of infantrymen leaving the enclave.

An Israeli military spokesman stopped short of calling the move a withdrawal, but said residents from some evacuated Palestinian neighborhoods had been told by the army they could return.

"The troops are in the midst of a redeployment to other parts of the border," said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner. "Indeed we are releasing troops from the front line but the mission is ongoing. Ground forces are operating. Air forces are operating."

In the town of Rafah, where the military has been battling Palestinian fighters, a missile from an Israeli aircraft struck the entrance to the school, where Palestinians who had fled their homes were sheltering, witnesses and medics said.

Robert Serry, UN Middle East Special Coordinator, said he was dismayed at reports of a strike in the immediate vicinity of a school in Rafah sheltering 3,000 displaced persons, causing multiple deaths and injuries.

"It is simply intolerable that another school has come under fire while designated to provide shelter for civilians fleeing the hostilities," he said.

Last Wednesday, at least 15 Palestinians who sought refuge in a UN-run school in Jabalya refugee camp were killed during fighting, and the UN said it appeared that Israeli artillery had hit the building. The Israeli military said gunmen had fired mortar bombs from near the school and it shot back in response.

The fighting on Sunday pushed the Gaza death toll given by Palestinian officials to 1,766, most of them civilians. Israel has confirmed that 64 soldiers have died in combat, while Palestinian rockets have also killed three civilians in Israel.

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