Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians today at a UN school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said.
People cut down by shrapnel lay in pools of blood on the street and witnesses said two Israeli tanks shells exploded outside the school. They said at least 40 civilians, who had taken refuge there and residents of nearby buildings, were killed.
In a separate attack earlier in the day, three Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on another school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The deaths raised to 75 the number of Palestinian civilians killed today, according to medical officials. They said four militants also were killed in fighting during the day and put the total Palestinian death toll since Israel began the offensive at 629.
More than 2,700 Palestinians have been wounded since Israel began the campaign with the declared aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks on its southern towns. Nine Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have been killed in the conflict.
At least five rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel today, including one that hit the town of Gadera, 28 km from Tel Aviv, police said. A three-year-old girl was wounded.
Israeli forces earlier pushed into Khan Younis in southern Gaza as the army widened the ground assault it launched four days ago against Hamas militants after a week of air strikes failed to stamp out cross-border rocket fire.
Most of the deaths reported by Gaza hospitals in recent days have been civilians.
The Israeli military said it killed 130 militants since Saturday, a figure that suggested the total Palestinian death toll since December 27th might be close to 700 and that bodies could still be on the battlefield.
Many of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million people lack food, water or power. In southern Israel, schools remained closed and hundreds of thousands of people have been rushing to shelter at the sound of alarms heralding incoming rockets.
Palestinian medics, reporting on casualties before the deaths at the UN school, said 23 Palestinian civilians were killed on Tuesday, including 10 people who were hit by naval shells along the beach in the central Gaza Strip.
Two militants were also killed in fighting.
Nine Israelis, including three civilians hit in Palestinian rocket attacks, have been killed in the conflict. At least five rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel today, including one that hit the town of Gadera, 28 km (17 miles) from Tel Aviv, police said. A three-year-old girl was wounded.
International efforts already under way to end the fighting have focused on securing a ceasefire deal that would meet an Israeli demand to ensure Hamas, an Islamist group in charge of the Gaza Strip, could not rearm once hostilities end.
"That is the make-or-break issue," Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said about ensuring an end to weapons smuggling along the Gaza-Egypt frontier by Hamas.
A senior Israeli official said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a Middle East visit and in partnership with Egypt, was pursuing "a serious initiative" for a ceasefire in Israel's 11-day-old operation and Hamas rocket strikes.
US President-elect Barack Obama expressed deep concern about the loss of civilian lives in Gaza and in Israel but he said he would adhere to his principle that only U.S. President George W. Bush would speak for American foreign policy at this time, but said he would have plenty more to say after his January 20th inauguration.
Reuters