Blast kills Gaza teacher in front of her children

The UN is demanding an investigation into how the Israeli military killed one of its Palestinian school teachers by blasting open the front door of her Gaza home with explosives in the presence of three of her children.

Wafer Shaker al Daghma, 34, a teacher at a local UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) elementary school, was killed last Wednesday as she stood preparing to open the wooden door of her home to the troops. According to UNRWA and relatives who found her body, the military used an explosive device on the door which blew most of her head from her body. They then confined the traumatised children – aged from two to 13 – for five hours while the body lay outside the door of the room where they were held.

Although the soldiers finally left the house – in darkness because of a blackout – at around 9pm, Mrs al Daghma's 13-year-old daughter Samira was too terrified to go outside for help for another two hours because of the continued presence of Israeli armoured vehicles outside her home.

Tiles above a washbasin opposite the front door of the house were still heavily spattered with dried blood yesterday. There was a pile of splintered wooden planks from the destroyed door on the floor where Mrs al Daghma's body, which soldiers apparently covered with a rug, had lain as the military incursion continued.

Chris Gunness, spokesman for UNRWA, said that the Israeli forces were using the house as a post to monitor "alleged militants". "The children heard many gun shots but do not know where they came from," he said. He said UNRWA had asked Israel in writing for "an impartial investigation, for accountability and allowing the facts to speak for themselves," adding: "We again condemn the killing of innocent civilians." More