A Middle East summit bringing together Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is due to start today.

Talks on forming a Palestinian national unity government were suspended because Fatah was not serious about resolving the violent crisis threatening to tear Palestinians apart, a senior official of the militant Hamas group alleged today.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas’ exiled chief failed to resolve an increasingly bitter dispute and form a unity government, dashing hopes for a quick end to the political crisis.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza could jeopardise the life of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants, a senior Hamas official said today.

A senior Hamas official today tried to sneak £434,000 into the Gaza Strip, hiding 500-euro bills in a white pouch tucked under his shirt in the first major cash smuggling attempt by an increasingly desperate Hamas government choked by Western economic sanctions.