Foreigners must now obtain visas to enter the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for Hamas has said.

Palestinian militants fired more than a dozen rockets at southern Israel today and Israeli warplanes killed four militants in the Gaza Strip in the most intense fighting since Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Israeli aircraft struck a Palestinian rocket squad in the Gaza Strip today, killing two militants as the military activated a new defence system to shoot down incoming rockets.

Hamas security forces killed the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip today in a shootout that claimed the lives of 22 people, Hamas said.

Gunmen smashed windows, burned buses and looted computers belonging to a private American school in Gaza before dawn today, an attack officials believed was linked to US President George Bush’s visit to the West Bank earlier this week.