Residents of a Gaza neighborhood are confirming Israel's claim that Hamas militants had opened fire from the cover of a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge.

Israeli forces fired back with mortars, and hospital officials says three dozen Palestinians were killed.

Two residents say a group of militants had fired their mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets. The Israeli army says two of the dead were militants. It accuses Gaza's Hamas rulers of "cynically" using civilians as human shields...