HAMAS officials said yesterday an agreement with Israel on a long-term ceasefire in Gaza could be announced within days, but a new cycle of attacks by both sides strained a temporary truce.

Israeli troops blew up an eight-storey block of flats and exchanged fire with gunmen taking cover in a local hospital, school and mosque, killing two Palestinians in a town in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli troops backed by tanks and attack helicopters raided a Gaza Strip town today, killing two Palestinians during fierce fighting and demolishing abandoned buildings and the exterior wall of a hospital, Palestinian officials and the army said.