Hamas gunmen opened fire today on forces of the rival Fatah, injuring at least six people throughout the Gaza Strip.

Efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking will shift into higher gear in the coming week, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travelling to Jordan and his foreign minister heading to Cairo to discuss a sweeping Arab peace proposal, an Israeli official said today.

Efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking will shift into higher gear in the coming week, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travelling to Jordan and his foreign minister heading to Cairo to discuss a sweeping Arab peace proposal, an Israeli official said today.

Talks are being held today by Israeli and Palestinian leaders today in a bid to determine the future of a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Islamic militant group Hamas today called for new attacks on Israel after eight Palestinians were killed in a surge of fighting over the weekend.

A senior British diplomat and BBC officials met Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas today to push for the release of a BBC journalist kidnapped three weeks ago.

Three Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded in shootings late yesterday and early today, threatening the calm that has accompanied a power-sharing deal between Islamic Hamas militants and the rival Fatah Party.

PALESTINIAN negotiators last night said a deal on a unity government could be days away, but that it might be delayed by difficulties in working out a parallel prisoner swap with Israel.

Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and ground troops tightened their grip today on a northern Gaza town they overran yesterday, killing two Palestinians in Israel’s biggest push in months to stop militant rocket fire.

Palestinian Cabinet ministers from Hamas handed in their resignations today, a step toward forming a unity government with the moderate Fatah.

Hamas officials today gave Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the go-ahead for negotiations with Israel, a major shift in the militant Islamic group’s position toward the Jewish state as it worked to end its international isolation.

The US proposes deploying international observers at the main cargo crossing between Israel and Gaza to prevent repeated security closures of Gaza’s economic lifeline, Palestinian and Israeli officials said today.

Palestinian officials said today they expected to have “good news” about the two Fox News journalists kidnapped in Gaza City within two days and believe they are unharmed.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today agreed to start negotiations on forming a broader government, a government spokesman said.

Militants holding an Israeli soldier today said they would give no further information about him because Israel ignored a deadline to release Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli aircraft blasted the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas early today, the latest military move aimed at winning freedom for an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas militants in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today ruled out negotiations with the Palestinian captors of an Israeli soldier, promising a “broad and ongoing” military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas is close to agreeing to major concessions over a document that implies recognition of Israel, a senior Hamas official suggested today.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government today said the Islamic group was prepared to restore a cease-fire with Israel, several days after calling off the truce to protest against a deadly explosion on a Gaza beach.

An Israeli probe of a blast that killed eight Palestinian civilians on a Gaza beach last Friday will announce that it almost certainly came from a Hamas militant mine and not an Israeli shell, military officials said today.

The Palestinian government’s security chief, a key player in rocket attacks on Israel, was killed late yesterday in an Israeli air strike that threatened to escalate clashes between the two sides into a far fiercer conflict.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government has agreed to withdraw its private militia from public areas of Gaza in an agreement with the rival Fatah movement aimed at halting weeks of bloody infighting.

Three terrorist bombs tonight hit the Egyptian resort of Dahab at the height of the tourist season, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 150.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas put himself on a collision course with Hamas after blocking the party’s plan to set up a security force of 4,000 militants.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar today left on a fund-raising tour of Arab nations as the Hamas-led government struggles to find new sources of money to fill its bankrupt treasury.

The new Hamas-led Palestinian government is quietly working to end an upsurge in violence, urging rival militant groups in the Gaza Strip to refrain from launching rockets at Israel without official permission, officials on both sides confirmed today.

Thousands of Fatah supporters burned cars and fired guns in the air across the Gaza Strip, demanding the resignation of corrupt party officials and insisting on no coalition between their defeated party and victorious Hamas.

The ruling Fatah Party and the Islamic Hamas group today made impassioned last-minute appeals for support on the final day of campaigning in the Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Israeli troops and tanks searching for militants today charged into Palestinian areas at the northern and southern ends of the Gaza Strip before dawn.