Thousands of Palestinian residents of the northern Gaza Strip fled their homes and sought safety in United Nations shelters.

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.

The supreme leader of the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas is to step down, clearing the way for the movement to choose a new head for the first time in more than 15 years, senior officials said.

Israeli forces seized a Gaza-bound aid vessel swiftly and without meeting resistance today, preventing it from breaking a naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory days after a similar effort turned bloody.

The deputy leader of Hamas said the Islamic militant group has agreed to a long-term truce with Israel for the Gaza Strip, according to Egypt’s official news agency.

Hamas declared a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza in the name of all Palestinian factions today, in a televised announcement by its Damascus-based deputy leader.

Former US president Jimmy Carter defied American and Israeli warnings and met the exiled leader of Hamas and the militant group’s deputy chief.

Former US President Jimmy Carter defied American and Israeli warnings today and met the exiled leader of Hamas and the militant group's deputy chief.

Palestinian factions meeting in Yemen have ended five days of reconciliation talks without agreeing on who will control the Gaza Strip.

Arab states became increasingly worried today about the worsening situation in Gaza following Israel's fuel cuts.

The release of kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston is a message to the world that Hamas is capable of maintaining security and stability in the Gaza Strip, a senior official of the militant Palestinian group said today.

Israel’s army received approval today to broaden its ground operations against Gaza Strip militants who have been barraging Israeli border towns with deadly rocket fire, but no large-scale incursion is in the works, military officials said.

A Middle East summit bringing together Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is due to start today.

Talks on forming a Palestinian national unity government were suspended because Fatah was not serious about resolving the violent crisis threatening to tear Palestinians apart, a senior official of the militant Hamas group alleged today.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas’ exiled chief failed to resolve an increasingly bitter dispute and form a unity government, dashing hopes for a quick end to the political crisis.

Significant progress has been made in the Middle East during secret coalition talks between the supreme Hamas leader and aides of moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, officials from both sides said today.

The rival Fatah and Hamas movements have agreed on a candidate for prime minister of their emerging coalition government, turning to a US-educated professor to end months of infighting and help lift a painful international aid boycott.

The rival Fatah and Hamas movements today agreed on a candidate for prime minister of their emerging coalition government in Palestine, turning to a US-educated professor to end months of infighting and help lift a painful international aid boycott.

Israeli forces have arrested the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, a Hamas leader, at his house, alongside a day of Israeli military operations in the southern Gaza Strip – parts of a month-long offensive against the militant Islamic group.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza could jeopardise the life of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants, a senior Hamas official said today.

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.

THE Palestinians’ new Hamas leaders called yesterday’s suicide bomb in Tel Aviv a legitimate response to Israeli “aggression”.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a fast food restaurant in a bustling commercial area of Tel Aviv during the Jewish holiday of Passover today, killing himself and eight people and wounding 49 in the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year.

A top Hamas official said the militant group will abide by past agreements Palestinian leaders made with Israel as it strives to create a ruling coalition after a stunning election victory.

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.

HAMAS and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire yesterday as the long-dominant Palestinian faction was threatened with a violent backlash to its crushing election defeat by the Islamic militant group.