Fury as Israeli school attack kills more than 30

International outrage grew over civilian deaths in Gaza tonight after an Israeli bombardment killed at least 34 people, many of them children, near a UN school.

Hundreds of Palestinians had sought safety at the school after fleeing from a refugee camp in the face of Israeli advances.

It was the second deadly attack near a UN school in hours, and the worst since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend.

Nearly 600 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, have now died in the onslaught.

Ignoring international calls for a ceasefire, Israeli soldiers edged closer to Gaza’s major population centres. A total of 58 Palestinians were killed in fighting today with just two confirmed as militants.

The rising civilian death toll has drawn international condemnation and raised concerns of a looming humanitarian disaster.

Many Gazans are without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say that without distribution disrupted, food supplies are running thin.

“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorised and traumatised,” John Ging, the top UN official in Gaza, said after the first strike on the compound of a UN school killed three people.

The United Nations said three civilians were killed in the first airstrike.

The second airstrike landed about 10 yards outside the school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya.

Dr Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Radwan Hospital, said 34 people were killed.

Majed Hamdan, a news photographer, said he reached the scene shortly after the attacks. He said many children were among the dead.

“I saw women and men – parents – slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead,” he said. “In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there was not enough space for the wounded.”

UN officials say they provided their location co-ordinates to Israel’s army to ensure that their buildings in Gaza were not targeted.

The army declined to comment, but said Hamas often used schools, mosques and civilian areas for cover.

The international Red Cross said an ambulance post was hit as well on Tuesday, injuring one medical worker.

Ten Israelis have died since the operation began, including a soldier who was shot today.

“I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this,” Mr Ging said, speaking at Gaza’s largest hospital. “They are responsible for these deaths.”

United Nations staff estimate around 15,000 people have fled to 23 UN-run schools they have turned into makeshift refuges. UN food aid has halted in the northern Gaza Strip because officials fear residents would risk their lives to reach distribution centres.

Israel says it will not stop the assault until its southern towns are freed of the threat of Palestinian rocket fire and it receives international guarantees that Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran and Syria, will not restock its weapons stockpile.

It blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the group intentionally seeks cover in crowded residential areas.

“The battle is bitter but unavoidable. We set out on this operation in order to deal Hamas a heavy blow and to alter living conditions in the south of the country and to block smuggling into the Gaza Strip,” Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

The army says it has dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, killing 130 militants in the past two days and greatly reducing the rocket fire. At least 15 rockets were fired Tuesday and one landed in the town of Gadera, about 25 miles from the Gaza border, lightly wounding a three-month-old baby, police said. At the outset of the fighting, militants launched dozens of rockets each day.

In Geneva, the international Red Cross said Gaza was in a “full-blown” humanitarian crisis. Its head of operations, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said the few remaining power supplies could collapse at any moment.

Israeli leaders say there is no humanitarian crisis and that they have allowed the delivery of vital supplies.