Palestinian militants launched dozens of rockets and Israel responded with airstrikes after Egyptian efforts to mediate a lasting truce in the month-long Gaza war collapsed in a hail of fire a day earlier.

Palestinian militants have launched dozens of rockets and Israel responded with air strikes after Egyptian efforts to mediate a lasting truce in the month-long Gaza war collapsed in a hail of fire a day earlier.

Israel knocked out Gaza’s only power plant and pounded dozens of other high-profile targets yesterday, while Egyptian mediators prepared a revised proposal for halting its war with Islamist guerrillas.

The oldest Palestinian suicide bomber, a 64-year-old widow, lived in a one-room shack and had so many grandchildren that relatives lost track of the number, but her daughter said Fatma Omar An-Najar was driven to lay down her life in an attack on Israelis because one grandson was killed and another disabled in clashes with troops.

Sharply escalating its military campaign, Israel dropped a quarter-ton bomb on a Gaza home today to assassinate top Hamas fugitives, killing nine civilians as Islamic militant leaders got away.

Mohammed Deif, the Palestinian militant who has been top of Israel’s wanted list for a decade, was wounded in an air strike on a house in Gaza City early today, the military said.

Defiant Palestinian militants pounded Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip with mortar fire today, following the killing of a top Hamas militant in an air strike.

Hamas vowed revenge today after an Israeli air strike killed its second most senior commander, in the latest Israeli assassination targeting the militant group.

ABDEL AZIZ RANTISI, a hardliner who opposes even a temporary truce with Israel, was chosen as the new Hamas leader in Gaza last night.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a hardliner who opposes even a temporary truce with Israel, is emerging as a Hamas strongman in the Palestinian areas after the assassination of the group’s founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

Israeli forces backed by tanks and combat helicopters raided the West Bank town of Jenin today, sparking a gun battle that killed a Palestinian woman in her home.

HAMAS leaders are "marked for death" and won't have a moment's rest, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned yesterday, after Israel failed in an attempt to kill the top echelon of Hamas with a 550-pound bomb dropped on a Gaza City apartment. Israel also closed the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

ISRAELI troops raiding a Gaza refugee camp arrested a Hamas founder yesterday, targeting the political leadership of the Islamic militant group for the first time in 29 months of fighting.

Israeli troops captured a top Hamas fugitive today as they raided a stronghold of the Islamic militant group in Gaza City, killing two Palestinians and blowing up the home of a suspected bomb-maker.

Three people were killed and 95 wounded today when a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter exploded in a crowd in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, doctors said.

A top Hamas bombmaker survived an Israeli air strike that was supposed to kill him, an Israeli Cabinet minister admitted today.

The fate of Hamas master bombmaker Mohammed Deif remained unclear today, hours after an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a car in Gaza, killing at least two people and wounding dozens.

Israeli helicopters have fired missiles at a car in the West Bank, the latest strike in an assassination policy against leading Palestinian activists.