WORLD : 66 Arab Children Hurt as Israelis Throw Tear Gas Into U.N. Clinic
Israeli soldiers today threw a tear gas grenade into a crowded waiting room of a U.N. maternity clinic in occupied Gaza City, injuring 66 Palestinian children, most of them babies, the army said.
An official military source said the incident occurred when an army patrol “encountered massive throwing of stones and building blocks from inside the U.N. clinic.”
The source said that the soldiers acted contrary to orders and that the Israeli military commander in Gaza had ordered legal steps against those involved.
Witnesses said six or seven soldiers in plainclothes chased stone-throwing Arab youths into the U.N. Relief and Works Agency Swedish Health Center and burst into a waiting room for pregnant women and a room where infants were being vaccinated.
They said the soldiers threw three tear gas grenades in the courtyard of the clinic. An UNRWA spokeswoman said between 100 and 200 women and children were in the center at the time.
UNRWA international staff eventually intervened and persuaded the soldiers to withdraw.
Fifty-eight infants were treated for tear gas inhalation at the nearby Nasr Children’s Hospital.
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