Children among dead as strike hits fleeing convoy on Gaza safe route

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct 14 (Agencies): Women and young children were killed on Saturday when a strike hit their vehicles as they headed away from northern Gaza.
Analysis of images from the scene show some of those who died were aged between two and five
The Palestinian Health Ministry has blamed Israel for the attack. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) says it is investigating.
Thousands of Palestinians fled the north of the Gaza Strip from the path of an expected Israeli ground assault, while Israel pounded the area with more air strikes and said it kept two roads open to let people escape.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza in retaliation for a rampage by fighters, who stormed through Israeli towns a week ago, gunning civilians down and making off with scores of hostages.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Saturday on China, a partner of Iran, to use its influence to push for calm in the Middle East.
The top US diplomat, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, had a "productive" one-hour telephone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
China has a warm relationship with Iran, whose clerical leadership supports both Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group ruling Gaza that carried out grisly attacks inside Israel a week ago, and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that could open a second front against Israel.
The violence in Gaza has been accompanied by the deadliest clashes at Israel's northern border with Lebanon since 2006, raising fears of war spreading to another front.
Lebanon's armed Hezbollah movement, a close ally of Iran like Hamas, said it had fired at five Israeli outposts in the disputed Shebaa Farms area with guided missiles and mortar bombs.
Reuters saw missiles fired at an Israeli army post and heard shelling from Israel and gunfire.
Israel's Kan radio reported five border villages had been put under lockdown in response to a suspected incursion from Lebanon.
On Friday, Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah was killed in a missile strike on the Lebanese side of the border. Lebanon's army said the missile was launched by Israel. The Israeli military said it was investigating what happened.
Israeli forces have since put the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total siege and bombarded it with unprecedented air strikes. Gaza authorities say more than 2,200 people have been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded.
Israel had given the population of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes the enclave's biggest settlement Gaza City, until Saturday morning to move south. Hamas has told people not to leave and says roads out are unsafe.
It says dozens of people had been killed in strikes on cars and trucks carrying refugees on Friday.
The attacks on Israel have plunged the nation into deep grief and galvanised it for war, with hundreds of thousands of reservists mobilised within days.
Israel's attacks on Gaza failed to halt Hamas missile strikes deep into Israeli cities. Air raid sirens wailed in central Israel on Saturday and rockets smashed into a greenhouse in Ashkelon and wounded four people at a kibbutz. The only route out of Gaza not under Israeli control is a checkpoint with Egypt at Rafah.
Egypt officially says its side is open, but traffic has been halted for days because of Israeli strikes.
Egyptian security sources said the Egyptian side is being reinforced and Cairo has no intention of accepting a mass influx of refugees.
A senior U.S. State Department official said the United States was working to open the crossing on Saturday to let some people out, and had been in touch with Palestinian-Americans who want to leave Gaza. Washington later said it had told its citizens to try to reach the crossing.
Countries and aid agencies have sent supplies to Egypt but have so far been unable to bring them into Gaza. Israel says nothing can enter through Rafah without its coordination.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most crowded areas in the world, and Israel's evacuation order for the northern half meant those fleeing south were forced to shelter with relatives and friends, in schools or hastily rented apartments.