The Palestinian education ministry said five Palestinian schoolchildren were killed in a blast in the Gaza Strip today.
"Five pupils were killed today by an unexploded Israeli tank shell," the ministry said in a statement. It denounced the deaths as a "crime of assassination". An Israeli army tank shell killed the five Palestinian boys on their way to school in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.
But an Israeli military source denied there had been tank fire in the area. The army said it was investigating the report.
Col Khaled Abu al-Ula, Palestinian commander of the military liaison unit in southern Gaza, said a tank stationed at the Jewish settlement of Nezer Hazani fired into nearby Khan Younis and hit the boys as they walked to Al-Agha school.
"This was murder in cold blood. No human being can imagine an army doing such a thing", Mr Abu al-Ula said.
Hospital officials in Khan Younis had earlier said at least four boys were blown up in the explosion at about 5 a.m. (Irish time).
Palestinian cabinet minister Mr Hassan Asfour said the incident was a political message to the world and to the US that Israel is not concerned with calm.