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.

Palestinian militants, angry at the jailing of their leader by the Palestinian police, today stole two bulldozers and rammed through a wall near the border with Egypt, hours after they blocked the official border crossing and took over government buildings.

The tense situation at the Gaza-Egypt border was brought under control today after it was stormed by a group of rebel policemen furious over a colleague’s killing, the Palestinian police chief said.

Palestinian policemen angry over growing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip stormed the Gaza-Egypt border crossing today, scaring off European monitors who fled the area and forcing the border to close.