"Black smoke billowed over Gaza City after the Israeli shell struck the U.N. compound, setting fire to the central warehouse for the U.N.'s refugeee agency and injurying three workers.

"The attack drew immediate protest from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who was preparing to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni when he got word of the strike.

"Ban voiced his "outrage" over the shelling and said that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had personally apologized to him for the attack.

" 'The defense minister said to me it was a grave mistake and he took it very seriously," Ban told reporters in Tel Aviv before meeting with Livni to discuss United Nations efforts to bring the fighting to an immediate end.

"Witnesses said another strike hit a Red Crescent hospital, setting the administration building ablaze and trapping dozens of workers inside. Another strike hit several high-rise buildings, including one housing the Thompson-Reuters news offices."

And just like the Bush administration has ignored Supreme Court rulings, so to the Israelis ignore their highest court: