Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas held a long-overdue summit today, reviving hope that peace talks can resume after years of fighting, hostility and distrust.

Hamas gunmen today ambushed the car of a security commander loyal to president Mahmoud Abbas, shooting him seven times in the legs, Palestinian security officials said.

A NEW Hamas militia battled gunmen from a Fatah-dominated security force near the Palestinian parliament in Gaza yesterday in fresh clashes that killed a Jordanian driver and wounded six bystanders.

Palestinian security today foiled an attempt to kill a top commander loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas with a roadside bomb, officials said, further raising tensions between Abbas’ Fatah movement and the Hamas-led government.

Three thousand gunmen loyal to the radical Hamas government deployed across the Gaza Strip today in the Islamic group’s most brazen challenge yet to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Three thousand gunmen loyal to the radical Hamas government deployed across the Gaza Strip today, violently breaking up a peaceful teachers’ protest in a southern town, in the Islamic group’s most brazen challenge yet to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.

Two high-ranking Palestinian security officials, a senior Palestinian banker and the commercial attache at the Palestinian embassy in Cairo died in the bombings in Jordan, the Palestinian envoy to Amman said on today.

HAMAS, a militant group that espouses suicide attacks and a strict Islamic rule, says it is ready to take over the Palestinian leadership from Yasser Arafat.

Israeli forces have captured two armed Palestinians approaching a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian woman and her two-year-old daughter were shot dead today while riding in a taxi in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians, who claimed Israeli troops were responsible.