Gaza City - At least five Palestinians died Monday, as Israel used artillery and tank shelling during heavy exchanges of fire with local gunmen in eastern Gaza City and outside the Jabaliya refugee camp to the north, hospital officials said.

Two women and a child were among the dead in eastern Gaza City, apparently when their house was hit by a shell or by shrapnel.

A fourth Palestinian was killed by tank shelling in Jabaliya, north of Gaza City, while a fifth died in hospital of wounds sustained the previous day.

Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein said more people were believed killed and injured in the areas of the fighting, but ambulances were unable to reach them because there was no let up in the shelling and exchanges of fighting.

Heavy exchanges also took place on the south-western outskirts of Gaza City, where ground troops pushed into the Sheikh Ajleen and the Tal el-Hawa neighbourhoods, and to the east of Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya north of the city, witnesses said. (dpa)