Two car have bombs exploded in southern Syria and a rocket slammed into a building in the north in renewed violence that state media blamed on rebel fighters.

DOZENS of masked gunmen stormed a UN-run Gaza summer camp burning it to the ground, threatening “harsh measures” against the Gaza director of the UN refugee agency.

THE head of the UN relief agency in Gaza has called on Israel to allow immediate access for supplies and aid into the war-torn region warning that up to 90% of its citizens are surviving on handouts.

Gaza’s only electrical plant shut down today after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel that powers them.

Israeli aircraft killed two Hamas militants in Gaza fighting early today, a day after Israel sealed the territory and bombed an empty Hamas government ministry in an intensifying campaign to halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns.

The Gaza Strip will soon become entirely dependent on foreign aid and face “disastrous consequences” if the Hamas-run territory remains sealed off, the UN warned.

Israel is co-operating with the forces of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Hamas-controlled Gaza to bring humanitarian aid into the impoverished coastal strip.

Hamas neared control of the entire Gaza Strip after a day of battles in the region during which rival Fatah forces were dislodged from key positions.

Hamas pounded Gaza City’s three main security compounds and President Mahmoud Abbas’ headquarters with mortars, grenades and assault rifles today, calling on beleaguered Fatah forces to surrender, in an apparent attempt to take control of the entire Gaza Strip.

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians carrying their belongings in plastic bags trickled out of a besieged refugee camp in the Lebanon today after a truce in the fighting mostly held overnight.

A new attempt at a ceasefire in the fierce battle at a Palestinian refugee camp fell apart today when Lebanese troops and Islamic militants resumed barrages after a pause that lasted nearly an hour.

Palestinian militants opened fire at a festival at a UN-operated primary school in the southern Gaza Strip today, killing a bodyguard of a local Fatah leader and wounding seven other people, medical officials said.

Residents of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza dug through the rubble of their damaged homes, bridges and UN schools today, after Israeli troops pulled out following a two-day incursion aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets at Israel.

US INTERNATIONAL envoy James Wolfensohn said the Palestinian Authority faces financial collapse within two weeks now that Israel has cut off tax transfers in response to Hamas’s election victory.

Israeli troops left behind a trail of destruction before withdrawing from a refugee camp in southern Gaza today.

Israel’s three-day military operation in a Gaza Strip refugee camp left 1,240 Palestinians homeless, the largest demolition of houses in a Gaza raid in three years of fighting, UN officials said.

Israel’s three-day military operation in a Gaza Strip refugee camp left 1,240 Palestinians homeless, the largest demolition of houses in a Gaza raid in three years of fighting, UN officials said.

ISRAEL withdrew most forces from a Gaza Strip refugee camp yesterday after a swoop on suspected arms-smuggling tunnels, using tanks and bulldozers, that left eight Palestinian dead and more than 1,000 homeless.

Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip today and imposed the most sweeping travel restrictions in years, as US Secretary of State Colin Powell ended his Mideast peace mission with little to show for it.

A UN official has said eight of the 10 Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip yesterday morning were unarmed civilians.

US secretary of state Colin Powell was expecting to win broad approval from Arab, European, Russian and United Nations leaders today on an ‘‘action plan’’ to help the Palestinian people over the next three years.