The Palestinian president and prime minister, locked in a violent power struggle, today agreed to pull back their forces, after a senior security commander and four of his bodyguards were killed in one of the bloodiest battles in weeks of internal fighting.

Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip early today, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including 10 children, as they slept, health officials said.

Hamas militants stormed a Palestine TV broadcast facility in the southern Gaza Strip, kicking workers out of the building and destroying equipment in a shooting rampage, employees said. There were no reports of injuries.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told his people in a televised speech today that he would take immediate steps to impose order in chaotic Gaza.

Yasser Arafat was laid to rest in a marble-and-stone grave today after his flag-draped coffin was borne through a sea of emotional Palestinians who swarmed around the helicopter that had carried him from a state funeral in Egypt.

Israeli tanks and troops entered Gaza in two places early today, killing four Palestinians, witnesses and doctors said, while both sides indicated changes in tactics, moving toward guerrilla warfare.