Family of 7 killed as Israel sets out to split Gaza City from rest of territory

The rising death toll among Palestinian civilians, including children, since the launch of the Israeli ground invasion will add to diplomatic pressure for a ceasefire amid claims that Gaza has been effectively split into three.

Israel stepped up its offensive against Hamas militants today with reports of tanks rolling into the south of Gaza while troops strengthened their grip on the north of the territory, around Gaza City. Overnight, Israeli forces launched around 30 air strikes on Gaza.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is expected in Jerusalem today to attempt to negotiate a 48-hour "humanitarian" truce.

Reuters reported claims by Palestinian medical officials that seven members of a single family had been killed in one attack on the Beach refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City. That followed a separate, reported shelling which killed three children and their mother in their home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

At least 12 Palestinian civilians were reported killed in fighting today, bringing the unconfirmed death toll in Gaza to more than 500 since Israel began its offensive. Palestinians claim 87 children have died in the fighting, according to today's Jerusalem Post.

No foreign reporters have managed to enter Gaza, making it difficult to verify claims and counter-claims amid the fighting.

But flashes of explosions could be seen overnight from the northern border of Gaza and the regular sounds of gun and artillery fire could be heard while fighting appeared to move away from the northern end of the territory towards more populous areas in the west, according to the BBC.

One Israeli soldier has been killed in action while a further five were wounded in the early hours of this morning in fighting with Hamas gunmen in northern Gaza. Thirty Israeli soldiers have been injured since the ground invasion, begun on Saturday afternoon, and four Israeli civilians have been killed in rocket attacks.

The Israeli air force claimed to have attacked more than 30 targets in Gaza overnight, including a Hamas underground bunker, weapons caches and rocket launching sites.

The Israeli Defence Force claimed to have infiltrated the Hamas television station and had begun broadcasting a call to Palestinian civilians to not serve "as human shields to Hamas terrorists". Hamas continued to fire rockets into southern Israel today although only three landed, hitting open areas with no reports of damage or casualties.

But the organisation's ability to hit Israel has been severely hampered by the IDF offensive which has split Gaza into three. The north of the territory has been sealed off with Gaza City now surrounded by Israeli troops on three sides and the sea on the other, from where the Israeli navy can shell targets.

Yesterday morning tanks set up a blockade south of Gaza City. In a separate manoeuvre, about 40 tanks were reported moving towards Khan Younis in the south, cutting off the smuggling tunnels which run under the border between Gaza and Egypt.

The incursion stopped the trickle of aid trucks that had been making their way to Gaza's hospitals, prompting the head of the UN refugee agency in Gaza City to declare a "catastrophe unfolding".

Thousands of Israeli ground troops, backed up by Merkava tanks and covered by Cobra helicopters, have been ordered to blow up Hamas weapons stockpiles, kill their fighters and destroy the tunnels. The Hamas armed wing, the Izz al-Din al Qassam Brigades, is estimated to have 15,000 fighters. It is divided into small units which operate in tunnels and wadis or dry river beds.

Diplomatic efforts to bring peace will intensify today with the arrival of Mr Sarkozy for a four-day trip to the Middle East. A separate, high-profile EU delegation - headed by the Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwartzenberg and including EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and a Russian envoy - are already in Jerusalem.

President Sarkozy will travel across the Middle East, taking in the Egyptian capital Cairo as well as Jerusalem, the Palestinian West Bank town of Ramallah and the Syrian capital Damascus.

A Hamas official said a delegation of the Islamist group would head for talks in Egypt. There is growing anger in the Arab world at the Israeli assault with demonstrations across the region. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, normally an ally of Israel, said Israel was perpetrating "inhuman actions" which would "bring it to destroy itself."

He said: "Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents."