Strikes hit UN school in Gaza
Updated on 06 January 2009
Israeli tank shells kill at least 40 Palestinians at a UN school where civilians were sheltering.
Israeli forces continue to tighten their grip on Gaza, with tanks and troops moving into more towns along the Gaza Strip.
But the attacks have brought more unintended casualties on both sides, and pressure is growing for an urgent ceasefire. Overnight there was intense fighting on the outskirts of Gaza City.
Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter. Earlier three Palestinians died in an air strike on a UN school in the north of the city, where hundreds were seeking refuge from the bombardment.
Three Israeli soldiers were killed and 24 injured in a friendly fire incident nearby.
In the south of the strip, eye-witnesses say Israeli tanks have reached the town of Khan Younis, Israeli air strikes have targeted the town of Rafah, pushing ever closer to the underground tunnels near the border with Egypt which Israel says are a source of smuggled weapons to Hamas.
So far today there have been five rockets fired by Palestinian militants into southern Israel, near the town of Gadera, wounding a three-year-old girl.
James Blake's report contains some distressing images
