ISRAELI shells struck a U.N. school in Gaza yesterday, killing at least 16, as ground troops made a significant push into the territory despite Palestinian efforts to broker a 24-hour truce, the AFP reported.

    A Reuters report earlier yesterday put the death toll at 20 while an AP report said 15 were killed in the airstrike.

    It was the second time in a week that a U.N. school sheltering hundreds of homeless Palestinians had been hit, with the latest violence pushing the Gaza death toll over 1,270.

    The bloodshed came as a top-level Palestinian delegation, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders, was preparing to head to Cairo to discuss a new proposal for a temporary humanitarian cease-fire, a top Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official said.

    But there was no word on whether Israel would respond to the initiative, with the military striking 75 targets in Gaza overnight as ground troops made a “significant advance” inside the narrow coastal enclave, army radio reported.

    So far, U.N. figures show up to 240,000 people have fled their homes in a territory, which is home to 1.7 million Palestinians, leaving one in seven people homeless.

    Many have taken shelter at schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), a number of which have been hit by shells in the past week, although the agency has reported finding rockets stored at two of its uninhabited schools.

    Two shells struck the Jabaliya school, one hitting a classroom on the ground floor where people had been staying and a second slamming into the top floor, hitting another classroom which was apparently empty, an AFP correspondent said.

    “They’re bombing houses, homes, schools — there’s no protection,” said Moin al-Athamna, one of those staying at the school, saying everyone had been sleeping when the first shell hit.

    “They were all kids in there, young people,” said Hisham al-Masri. “Why would they do this? Where can people go?”

    International efforts to broker an end to the bloody conflict have so far led nowhere, with current efforts focused on a top-level Palestinian delegation, which was expected to visit Cairo in the coming days to discuss a new interim truce proposal.

    But U.S. efforts were also ongoing, with Secretary of State John Kerry saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had turned to Washington for help trying to broker a cease-fire.

    The PLO said it had garnered Hamas support for a 24-hour truce, which would be discussed in Cairo.(SD-Agencies)