Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinian militants during a fierce gun battle in the northern Gaza Strip today, Palestinian security and medical officials said, as an operation to destroy Palestinian rocket launchers entered its 10th day.

Palestinian militants fired a barrage of home-made rockets at the Israeli border town of Sderot today, killing an Israeli man and a three-year-old boy.

PALESTINIAN militants set off a huge explosion at an Israeli army outpost in the Gaza Strip yesterday, causing a concrete building to collapse.

Palestinians today handed over to Israel body parts of soldiers killed in an explosion that destroyed an armoured personnel carrier in Gaza City, Palestinian officials said.

HAMAS yesterday launched an ill-fated sea-borne attack on an Israeli beach-front settlement in Gaza.

A PALESTINIAN mother-of-two blew herself up yesterday at the main crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing at least four Israelis and wounding seven other people.

A SUICIDE attacker detonated explosives at the entrance to a crowded mall in northern Israel yesterday, killing at least three shoppers and wounding 47, the latest in a series of bombings that have derailed US peace efforts.