Business is down because of an Egyptian security clampdown, but smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border keep operating under the supervision of Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

GAZA militants bombarded southern Israel with rockets and mortars yesterday, drawing retaliatory Israeli air strikes in an escalation of the worst hostilities in the area since Israel went to war in the Palestinian territory two years ago.

One of the last ships on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza is to be intercepted by the Israeli navy today.

IT was kept secret for weeks, but NGOs knew, journalists knew and the Palestinians did too. Finally, Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin arrived in Gaza yesterday morning after a brief 20-minute security check on the Egyptian border.

An Israeli military spokesman says that Palestinian militants fired a rocket from Gaza toward Ashkelon.

Israel demanded an international monitoring force as part of any Gaza ceasefire deal today, as its planes and ships continued to bombard the territory for a sixth day.

Gaza militants launched barrages of rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel, rescue services said today.

Peace talks are due to resume between Israel and Palestinians after they were abandoned over military action in Gaza.

Egyptian border guards began trying to control the masses of Palestinians flooding from the Gaza Strip today but were not attempting to reseal the breached border.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today said he is close to calling new legislative elections, a move designed to freeze the Hamas militant group from power.

A security panel headed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip early today after a wave of kidnappings that included a Palestinian police chief and four French citizens.

ISRAELI troops conducted a series of raids in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, arresting a Hamas leader and killing a five-year-old Palestinian boy, Palestinian witnesses said.