Children Return To School In Gaza Strip

January 26, 2009 7:59 a.m. EST

Gaza City, Gaza Strip (AHN) - United Nations schools reopened in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the first time after the Israeli 22-day military air and ground offensive against Hamas militants there.

About 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict, 10 soldiers and three civilians, while 1,300 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, including at least 400 children, another 1,800 children were wounded, of the more than 5,000 Palestinians who were wounded.

U.N. officials say they will have a better idea of how many school-age children were killed or wounded from the class rosters as teachers take roll call of the classes.

About 200,000 children attend the 200 U.N. schools, but about 30 of the schools were damaged by Israeli bombs or shells during the offensive.

Hamas run schools also reopened.

At one primary school in Beit Lahiya school officials took a different kind of roll call before classes started. They asked students to identify themself if they had had a parent killed, or if their home had been destroyed.

Israeli officials have claimed that its troops were responding to fire from militants near U.N. schools and say that they don't target civilians.

Under international humanitarian laws both sides of a conflict are responsible for ensuring that civilians are not killed or injured.

For example, some United States soldiers have been court-martialed for killing civilians in Iraq. In some cases in Iraq, U.S. soldiers have claimed that they had fired into homes that they suspected were occupied by Iraqi insurgents and instead ended up shooting and killing Iraqi civilian men, women and children, however, military rules require soldiers to identify their target before shooting.

Because of the high number of Palestinian children killed or wounded by Israeli soldiers before the ceasefire, there have been calls by many in the international community for an investigation to determine if war crimes were committed.

It looks unlikely that the Israeli military will investigate and court martial soldiers or officers for killing or wounding civilians. They have already stated it is not there policy to kill civilians. Israeli government officials have also reportedly instructed military leaders not to release information on the names of the unit commanders in case there is an international war crimes investigation.

However, it looks unlikely that war crimes charges would be brought against Israel. It is not a member of the international court, so the court has limited powers and if the U.N. Security Council brings a resolution to investigate war crimes charges, all it takes is one veto vote to end the matter.

This latest round of fighting was sparked after Hamas militants refused to stop firing rockets into Israel. Israeli officials decided that a collective punishment of all Palestinians, in the form of a military offensive, might force the Palestinian civilians who don't belong to Hamas to pressure the militants to stop firing rockets. However, half of the 1.5 Palestinians are children under the age of 18, many of the rest are their mothers or fathers or grandparents, and it is unlikely that they could influence Hamas militants even if they felt bold enough to try. Hamas militants in the past have reportedly targeted people they suspected of supporting Israel.

President Barack Obama made phone calls to leaders in the Middle East during his first day in office, seeking to assist the peace process along. However, analysts say that peace looks less likely there now than it did in 2000.

The U.S. role in any potential peace process would be diplomatic, any military support in peacekeeping efforts would reportedly come as a part of a U.N. or NATO peacekeeping force. With the ongoing recession, U.S. resources are stretched thin and it is borrowing money, on which it pays interest, to fund its budget.