More than 250 children have been killed in the Gaza fighting, according to the latest UN figures.

Children make up more than half of the crowded region’s 1.4 million population and are the most defenceless victims of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli army has unleashed unprecedented force in its campaign against Hamas militants, who have been taking cover among civilians.

A photo of four-year-old Kaukab Al Dayah, just her bloodied head sticking out from the rubble of her home, covered many front pages in the Arab world earlier this week. “This is Israel,” read the headline in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Kaukab was killed on Tuesday when an F-16 attacked her family’s four-storey home in Gaza City. Four adults also died.

As many as 257 children have been killed and 1,080 wounded - about a third of the total casualties since December 27, the UN said yesterday.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas in response to its repeated rocket attacks on southern Israel, and is doing its utmost to avoid civilian deaths.

However foreign aid officials say that civilians cannot escape blockaded Gaza and that bombing crowded areas inevitably leads to civilian casualties.

The Israeli military has used tank and artillery shells, as well as large aerial bombs.