An Israeli newspaper today reported that Hamas has drafted a plan for a five-year truce with Israel.

PROTESTERS planning to march into the Gaza strip to demonstrate against the plan to abandon Jewish settlements there last night looked likely to fail.

Opponents of Israel's Gaza pullout were penned into a farming village today, surrounded by police and confused over their next move. Some of their leaders admitted defeat in what was to have been the most formidable protest yet - a march of thousands to Gaza to join the settlers there.

The first hours in office for new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s have been marked by a series of crises, from the resignation of 46 election officials to renewed violence that could threaten his leadership.

Winning Israel’s general election was the easy part. Now premier Ariel Sharon faces an uphill battle to form a national unity government against “the murderous hatred” of Palestinian militants.