The story

Israeli artillery Tuesday struck near a U.N. school sheltering civilians in Gaza, killing at least 40 people after, according to the Israeli military, Hamas militants fired mortars from the location.

Dozens of other people were injured in the strike in the northern Gaza town of Jabalya.

"We face a very delicate situation where the Hamas is using the citizens of Gaza as a protective vest," Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brig. General Avi Benayahu said after the incident.

The Israeli strike was one of three on U.N. school properties in Gaza since Monday. An Israeli artillery shell struck an empty boys school in Jabalya on Tuesday, and an Israeli airstrike killed three men at an elementary school being used as a shelter in Gaza City on Monday, a U.N. agency said.

The United Nations called for an independent investigation into all three strikes. Read full article »

CNN's Talal Abu Rahma in Gaza City, Michal Zippori in Jerusalem and Nic Robertson, Ben Wedeman and Paula Hancocks on the Israel-Gaza border contributed to this report.

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