JABALIYA, Gaza Strip (AFP) - A leading militant and a 13-year-old girl were among seven Palestinians killed as Israeli troops pressed a deadly week-old incursion into the northern Gaza Strip in the face of mounting international criticism.
The UN Security Council was set to debate a call for international action to halt the offensive amid controversy over Israeli allegations of connivance by UN staff with Palestinian militants, which the army appeared to begin backtracking on in the face of vigorous denials by senior officials of the world body.
The dead commander was identified as Bashir al-Dibsh, 40, Gaza leader of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad.
Fellow militant Dharif al-Ariir was also killed in the attack on their vehicle just outside a Gaza refugee camp, medics said. A third person was wounded.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp, epicentre of the fierce fighting sparked by the incursion, a Palestinian gunman was killed by an Israeli tank shell.
Two more Palestinians were killed in an air strike on the camp Tuesday evening, medical and security sources said.
Medics identified the victims as brothers Hassan and Musa Darwish, 24 and 25, and said two other people were also seriously wounded.
Further south, Israeli troops shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl from an observation tower in the town of Rafah, on the Israeli-controlled border with the Gaza Strip.
Dr Ali Musa, head of Rafah hospital, said the body of Eman al-Hams was riddled with 20 bullets, including five to the head.
But Israeli military sources insisted troops had fired at the girl after she crossed into a restricted zone and was spotted planting "what seemed to be an explosive charge".
The violence raised to 82 the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip since Israeli armour poured into the north of the territory on September 28.
In the West Bank, an Israeli was wounded by gunfire as he drove south of Jerusalem near the settlement of Efrat.
In northern Gaza, troops pressed their mission to carve out a buffer zone inside the territory to keep Palestinian militants out of rocket range of neighbouring Israel.
The UN Security Council was due to hear calls for urgent action to halt the Israeli onslaught later Tuesday amid mounting international concern over the civilian casualty toll.
Even close Israeli ally the United States delivered a mild rebuke, saying it hoped to see a swift end to the incursion, which Israeli leaders have warned might last for weeks.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell repeated Washington's position that Israel had a right to defend itself, but called on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for a "proportionate" response.
"Mr Sharon finds the need to respond to that," Powell said before arriving in Brazil. "I hope it does not expand. I hope that whatever he does is proportionate to the threat Israel is facing and I hope this operation can come to a conclusion quickly."
In an interview published Tuesday, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz made clear the operation would be stepped up, and not cut short, despite the international pressure.
"We will intensify our activity on the ground and in the air," Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily. "The only way to lower the level of terror is to strike at it, to strike at it and again to strike at it."
The resolution to be debated by the UN Security Council "demands the immediate cessation of all military operations (in northern Gaza)" and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area.
The debate came amid a fierce war of words between Israel and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) over allegations by the Israeli army that the agency's staff had allowed Palestinian militants to abuse a UN ambulance to transport rockets.
Agency chief Peter Hansen dismissed the charges as "malicious propaganda", but the United Nations was expected to send a team of experts to Israel on Tuesday to examine the disputed video footage released by the army.
The army has already removed from its website all copies of the grainy tape, which Israel had said proved its case, but which Hansen dismissed as a bad-faith distortion that endangered his staff.
Meanwhile, a joint statement from the 12 UN agencies operating in Gaza warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in the territory.
"The restrictions on movement imposed by the Israeli army have blocked the effective distribution of humanitarian aid" by UNWRA, the statement said.
While recognizing Israel's security concerns, particularly that of putting an end to the rocket attacks, it said the Jewish state "must act in conformity with international humanitarian law and must not resort to the disproportionate use of force."