"We roundly deplore the recent incidents yesterday in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli shells on a school and Palestinian houses left at least eight dead, including two children," a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, Cecile Pozzo di Borgo, said.

"We call the Israeli authorities to show better restraint and to halt all military operations in the Palestinian territories," she told a media conference.

Pozzo di Borgo added that Paris saw Israel's incursions as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a blow to international efforts to restore some sort of stability to the region.

The Rafah incidents "result once again from the Israeli army's recourse to disproportionate military means against a civilian Palestinian population in densely populated urban areas," she said.

A similar message came from Moscow, as Russia on Friday condemned the Israeli army's excessive use of force.

"While firmly condemning the "terrorist actions" of extremists, (Russia) views with great concern the disproportionately harsh operations carried out by Israeli forces," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Russian statement blasted the Israeli army for attacking in a "densely populated Palestinian territory and causing the unjustified loss of civilian lives".

"The only chance of escaping the current dead end in Israeli-Palestinian relations is by a return to dialogue," it said.

Israeli tanks killed eight Palestinians, including two children, on Thursday, October 17, when they blasted two houses in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah with shells and heavy machine gun fire.

The murdered children were a four-year-old girl and a 12-year-old child.

Among the dead were also two young men and two elderly women and a dozen Palestinians were listed as seriously hurt.