As the Israeli military surrounded densely populated Gaza City on Tuesday, it claimed to have killed 130 Hamas fighters since beginning a ground offensive at the weekend.
Israel also confirmed that it had launched more than 40 air strikes since midnight as its campaign intensified.
The United Nations said Tuesday one Israeli missile struck an elementary school in Gaza City where hundreds of Palestinians had taken shelter, killing three men.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Asma Elementary school was clearly marked as a U.N. installation. It said over 400 people had been given shelter at the school when it was hit Monday night.
UNRWA identified the those killed as three men between the ages of 19 and 25, and said it "is strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities."
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to encircle the city of about half a million people as European diplomats swarmed into the region trying to pull together the elements for a cease-fire. But neither side has showed any real interest in international calls for a truce.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French President Nicholas Sarkozy Monday that Israel wanted a "full solution" to the conflict, not just a cease-fire that allowed Hamas to fortify itself, Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman said.
"Before the last cease-fire with Hamas began, Hamas had missiles with a range of 20 kilometers," Regev said Tuesday. "By the end of the cease-fire, the range of the missiles grew to 40 kilometers. Israel does not want the next cease-fire to allow them to get missiles with a range of 60 kilometers."
A Hamas rocket penetrated farther than ever before into Israel on Tuesday, landing in the town of Gadera, about 36 kilometers (23 miles) north of the Gaza border, the Israeli military said. On Monday, a rocket hit a kindergarten in Ashdod, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of Gaza.
Hamas had fired 10 rockets at Israel by midday Tuesday, the Israeli military said. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida warned Israel that the militants would continue rocket attacks "for many months" and vowed to strike deeper into Israeli territory.
"The Zionists legitimized the killing of their children when they killed our children," Mahmoud al-Zahar, a top Hamas leader, said in a address on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television.
In a separate incident, an Israeli officer was killed last night in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said. No other details were given.
The humanitarian situation in the region has worsened as the wounded swarmed Gaza's largest hospital and scores of Gazans headed for the morgues, where two bodies are crammed into each drawer.
Twenty-three people were killed in Gaza on Tuesday, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 555 -- including at least 100 women and children -- since Israel launched its operation on December 27, according to Palestinian medical sources. Another, 2,750 Palestinians have been injured, most of them civilians, the sources said.
Doctors at Gaza's Shifa Hospital feared that the casualties would mount quickly as Israeli troops closed in on Gaza City. The Israeli military reported heavy fighting there Monday night, and eyewitnesses reported seeing Israeli tanks in two areas Tuesday -- east of Jabalya and northeast of Gaza City.
One of the Israeli air strikes carried out overnight targeted a house in Jabalya belonging to Imad Siam, a senior figure in Hamas' military wing.
Other eyewitness reports from Gaza had Israeli troops advancing on the southern town of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli ground assault was launched Saturday night. Israel says it is the second phase of an operation to stop militants from firing rockets and mortars into southern Israel.
The incursion followed eight days of air strikes on the territory to stop the rocket attacks, which have killed four Israelis since the military operation began. iReport.com: Share reactions to "all-out war" in Gaza
In addition to the French president, a delegation of European Union foreign ministers is in the region to push for a truce, while Egypt is putting pressure on Hamas leaders in Gaza.
The concern is centered on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, which was already in dire straits before the current conflict.
The Israeli military said another 80 trucks with humanitarian aid would be allowed to pass into Gaza on Tuesday at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
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