GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli tank shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home Monday during a skirmish with gunmen, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they prepared to sit down for breakfast, Palestinian officials and relatives said.

But the Israeli military said explosives carried by militants were detonated in a clash with the Israelis and "and uninvolved civilians were hit." Palestinians said the militants were at least 400 yards from the stricken house.

The new violence threatened to hobble Egyptian attempts to bring a cease-fire to the area.

Palestinian medics identified the dead children as sisters Rudina and Hana Abu Meatak, ages 6 and 3, and their brothers, 4-year-old Saleh and 15-month-old Mousad. Their mother, Miyasar, was in her late 30s. Her two older children were critically wounded, the officials said.

"What a black day. They killed my family," said Ahmad Abu Meatak, father of the children, wailing outside the local hospital where the bodies were taken.

The force of the blast scattered clothes and other household items outside the two-room home. A single white children's shoe, flattened by the explosion, lay on the ground near a blue pair of shorts covered in sand. A green baby chair also sat outside, one end bent by the force of the blast.

A large crowd of people gathered outside, milling about as rescue crews cleaned up the debris and washed away bloodstains in the sand.