GAZA CITY, Sept 7 (AFP) - A 10-year-old Palestinian girl was seriously wounded in the head Tuesday when Israeli troops open fired near her school in the southern Gaza Strip, hospital sources and the United Nations said.
The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Raghda Al-Assar was struck in the head while sitting at her desk in one of its elementary schools in Khan Yunis.
It said was the third shooting incident to have left a pupil wounded in UNRWA-run schools in the last 18 months.
The agency said the shots came in response to the firing of a homemade rocket by Khan Yunis militants at the nearby Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Gush Katif bloc.
"Israeli military positions in Gush Katif retaliated with sporadic gunfire targeted at the western part of the Khan Yunis refugee camp," it said.
Israeli military sources said the incident was under investigation but insisted that "at no time was a school targeted by our forces."
They said however that troops had returned fire in three instances Tuesday in response to the firing of mortars and light weapons fire by militants.