Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip yesterday in an apparent winding-down of the nearly month-long operation against Hamas that has left more than 1,800 Palestinians and 60 Israelis dead.

Ten people have been killed by a strike near a United Nations school in the embattled coastal territory, a Gaza health official said.

An Israeli soldier feared by the the military to have been abducted by Palestinian gunmen in a firefight that shattered Gaza’s temporary ceasefire has been declared dead.

Israel will not participate in indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas for now and instead plans to scale back its 26-day military operation in Gaza on its own terms, according to officials and media reports.

At least four Palestinians have been killed by Israeli tank fire nearly two hours after Israel and Hamas began observing a three-day ceasefire, Gaza officials have said.

Israel has said it is calling up another 16,000 reservists, giving the military the ability to substantially widen its bloody Gaza offensive.

Fifteen Palestinians have died and more than 90 were injured after Israeli tank shells slammed into a crowded UN school sheltering Gaza war refugees, health officials and UN chiefs have said.

At least thirteen people have been killed in a tank shell attack on a United Nations school in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge from Israeli attacks.

Updates from Farah Baker, 16, convey the terror of life under conflict.

At least 100 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in Gaza today, according to a health official, as Israel escalated its military offensive in the coastal strip.

Israeli aircraft have struck 30 houses in the Gaza Strip, killing a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group and two of his sons.

Thousands of Palestinians protesting against the fighting in Gaza clashed with Israeli soldiers as the violence spread to the West Bank.

Israeli tank shells hit a compound housing a UN school in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside.

Israeli tank shells hit a compound housing a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside.

The overall Palestinian death toll passed 560 as high-level attempts to end Israel-Hamas fighting hit serious problems.

The UN chief and the US secretary of state are heading to Cairo to try to end two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza which has killed at least 500 Palestinians and 20 Israelis and displaced tens of thousands of people.

The UN Security Council has called for an "immediate ceasefire" as Israel's assault on Gaza continues.

An area of Gaza City has come under heavy tank fire as Israel widened its ground offensive against Hamas, causing hundreds of panicked residents to flee.

Israeli troops have uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and battled Gaza militants on the second day of a ground operation, as the Palestinian death toll climbed past 330 and diplomats scrambled to revive ceasefire efforts.

Israel uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in gun battles with Hamas militants today on the second day of its open-ended ground operation in Gaza, as the Palestinian death toll there topped 300.

The death toll from Israel’s 12-day offensive against Hamas militants has topped 300, a Gaza’s health ministry has said.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a five-hour United Nations-brokered “humanitarian” pause to their nine-day battle, offering the most encouraging sign yet that the fierce fighting could come to an end.

Israel deployed ground troops inside Gaza for the first time to raid a rocket launching site in the Palestinian territory.

Israel has widened its range of Gaza bombing targets to civilian institutions with suspected Hamas ties and announced it would hit northern Gaza "with great force" to prevent rocket attacks from there on Israel.

Israel has widened its air assault against the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers, hitting a mosque it said was hiding rockets, as Palestinians said the death toll from the five-day offensive had risen above 125.

Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas in Gaza have hit a mosque as the Palestinian death toll topped 120 in an offensive that shows no signs of slowing down.

A three-year-old girl in the Gaza Strip has been accidentally killed by a rocket launched by militants toward Israel, a Palestinian medical official said.

Three Hamas fighters are reported killed after Israeli aircraft bombed what the military described as a “terror tunnel” in Gaza.

Israeli troops fired on Gazans as they surged towards their border fence, killing one person but leaving intact the fragile two-day-old ceasefire between Hamas and the Jewish state.

Israel and Hamas continued to bombard each other today as attempts began to broker a cease-fire after six days of death and destruction.

An Israeli missile ripped through a two-story home in a residential area of Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 11 civilians, including four young children and an 81-year-old woman, in the single deadliest attack of Israel’s offensive against Islamic militants.

An Israeli missile flattened a two-story house in a residential neighbourhood of Gaza City today, killing at least 11 civilians, medical officials said.

An Israeli envoy held talks with Egyptian officials today on a ceasefire in his country’s offensive on Gaza as Israel widened the range of its targets, striking more than a dozen homes of Hamas militants and two media officials.

Israeli strikes hit two media centres in the Gaza Strip today as Israel warned it was widening its range of targets to go after military commanders of the territory’s Hamas rulers.

Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early today widening a blistering assault on Gaza rocket operations to include the prime minister’s headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels.

Israel expanded its fierce air assault on rocket operations in the Gaza Strip today, striking Hamas government and security compounds, smuggling tunnels and electricity sources after an unprecedented rocket attack aimed at the holy city of Jerusalem raised the stakes in its violent confrontation with Palestinian militants.

A series of rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel, prompting Israeli air strikes that killed a Palestinian militant.