UNRWA, Al Arabiya TV struck

UNRWA, Al Arabiya TV struck

Israel attacks UN and media buildings

DUBAI/GAZA CITY (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)

Israel bombed a United Nations headquaters in Gaza and a media offices building in the latest in a string of attacks Thursday that have killed at least 36 as Israeli tanks made their deepest advance yet into Gaza City.

Al Arabiya TV reported that the Israeil airstrike on the al-Sharouk building, which houses several international media outlets, killed two Abu Dhabi TV journalists and destroyed the offices of several media outlets.

The building included the offices of several Arab media outlets as well as Reuters, Fox and Sky news.

The attack on UNRWA, the U.N.'s main relief agency in Gaza, wounded three employees.

" We can't take this any longer. Look at my children, they're trembling " Gaza resident Hossein Battles raged throughout the embattled territory as tanks advanced into the heart of the Tal Al-Hawa neighbourhood in the southwest outskirts of Gaza's main population centre, sending hundreds of terrified civilians fleeing. Hamas gunmen fired at the advancing troops with anti-tank rockets and mortars and thick columns of black smoke rose into the sky above Gaza City in the south, east and north. A woman and her three children were killed in Beit Lahiya, though the exact number of casualties was not immediately clear as the clashes blocked ambulances from reaching the wounded, medics said.

Journalists are supposed to be protected by the Geneva convention Dozens of families sheltered inside the Al-Quds Hospital in Tal Al-Hawa after tanks rumbled in after dawn. "I brought the children to the hospital because they were scared at home, but here they are even more terrified," 40-year-old Hossein said as he huddled with his wife and five children in the pediatric ward. "We can't take this any longer. Look at my children, they're trembling," he said as explosions ripped through the air like thunderclaps and Israeli troops and Hamas fighters clashes less than 300 metres (yards) away. Israeli warplanes pummelled the densely-populated territory with some 70 strikes overnight, targetting Palestinian fighters, rocket launching sites and weapon storage sites, including a mosque in the south, the army said. Fighteres in Gaza fired 17 rockets and mortars into Israel in the space of several hours in the morning, it said. Since Israel unleashed its Operation Cast Lead on Dec. 27, at least 1,065 people have been killed and another 5,000 wounded, according to Gaza medics. Among the dead are at least 355 children, 100 women, 117 elderly men and 12 medics, they say. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and three civilians have died as a result of combat or rocket fire.