Gaza Death Toll Mounts Amid Cease-Fire Talks

Israel said the bodies of two Hamas operatives were found among the dead at the school.

Israeli Army soldiers take cover as a mobile artillery piece fires towards targets in the southern...

Israeli Army soldiers take cover as a mobile artillery piece fires towards targets in the southern Gaza Strip, on the Israel side of the border with Gaza Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. Israel ignored mounting international calls for a cease-fire and said it won't stop its crippling 10-day assault until "peace and tranquility" are achieved in southern Israeli towns in the line of Palestinian rocket fire.

(Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo)
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"This is not the first time that Hamas has fired mortars and rockets from schools, in such a way deliberately using civilians as human shields in their acts of terror against Israel," the IDF statement said.

U.N. officials said three mortar rounds landed within the school's perimeter. A second U.N. school in Gaza City that housed 400 refugees from the violence was struck during the night. Three people were reportedly killed in that attack.

Ging said 14,000 people had sought refuge in 23 U.N. schools throughout the Gaza Strip because their homes were destroyed or to escape violence.

After the first school was hit, Maxwell Gaylard, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, issued a statement saying, "These tragic incidents need to be investigated, and if international humanitarian law has been contravened, those responsible must held accountable."

Hamas Suicide Attackers

In areas outside of Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in Gaza's south, the sound of missiles, rockets, artillery, tank shells and gunfire could be heard and seen on local television throughout the night.

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'People Are Being Killed in Their Homes'

One Israeli officer who did not want to be named compared the fight to dentistry, saying, "We're not going in for a filling. We want to do a root canal." By morning Israeli tanks rolled into the outskirts of Khan Younis where they were met by some of the toughest resistance yet.

According to an Israeli source, Hamas has employed a tactic of using small squads of fighters with one or more suicide bombers taking the lead. The suicide bomber launches an initial attack at Israeli soldiers to "shock the ground troops" while the remaining Hamas fighters try to take Israeli soldiers hostage. So far this tactic has proved unsuccessful.

Hamas also fired off 36 more rockets today, with one landing in the Israeli town of Gadera, just 17 miles south of Tel Aviv.

The heaviest blow delivered against Israeli forces came in two incidences of friendly fire.

In Sajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, a tank shell struck a home killing one Israeli Golani (or infantry) officer and two Golani soldiers and injuring 24 others. A source with knowledge of the incident said that the soldiers were trying to find shelter in the empty house from mortar shells. The tank crew thought the armed men inside the house were Hamas fighters and fired. The house then collapsed on the soldiers.

In the second incident an Israeli officer was killed around 10 p.m., close to Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, by what sources say was a tank shell. A source in the southern command said that a force of infantry paratroopers was engaged in heavy fire exchanges with Hamas and requested artillery assistance. There were a few tanks firing in that area at the same time and the source said that one of the shells probably killed the officer. Two soldiers were also injured in the process. Both incidents are under investigation.