Palestinian security forces set up roadblocks throughout the southern Gaza Strip today as they stepped up a search for three British citizens abducted by Palestinian gunmen, the latest in a wave of kidnappings of foreigners in the chaotic area.

Palestinian security forces were today negotiating with gunmen who kidnapped a British human rights worker and her parents, a security official said, the latest in a wave of kidnappings of foreigners in the chaotic Gaza Strip.

Two Palestinian militant groups today threatened to call off a ceasefire with Israel if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas persisted with an arrest campaign he launched after a suicide bombing killed five Israelis.

Israel today arrested 15 militants and prohibited most Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza from entering Israel in response to a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis a day earlier.

Palestinian police will stand firm against vigilantes, their spokesman said today, a day after gun battles between security forces and Hamas left three people dead and 50 wounded.

Palestinian authorities today began enforcing a ban on public displays of weapons, arresting three people and confiscating the guns of off-duty police officers, in a key step toward imposing order in the chaotic Gaza Strip.

Israeli aircraft blasted suspected Palestinian weapons facilities and other militant targets throughout the Gaza Strip early today, at the launch of what the military said would be a “prolonged” offensive against Hamas militants for bombarding Israeli towns with rockets.

Thousands of masked Hamas gunmen marched in formation at a large victory rally in an empty Jewish settlement today, the Islamic militant group’s latest show of strength since Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

A senior Israeli defence official today challenged the Palestinian Authority to close the open border between Gaza and Egypt, saying its credibility was on the line over its failure to stop the flow of gunrunners and others across the frontier.

ISRAEL and the Palestinian Authority yesterday said they feared al-Qaida terrorists will infiltrate Gaza through the Gaza-Egypt border.

Less than a month before Israel begins pulling out of Gaza, almost every major issue about the territory’s future remains undecided.

Two foreign aid workers, one British and one Austrian, have been kidnapped from the streets of a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, officials said today.

The first Palestinian-Israeli summit in four months failed to advance peace prospects or solidify a shaky truce, leaving main issues unresolved and both sides disappointed.

Israel has agreed to hand over the West Bank town of Jenin to the Palestinians before withdrawing from four nearby West Bank settlements and the Gaza Strip this summer, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said today.

After a four-month lull in fighting, the two largest Palestinian militant groups are threatening to withdraw from a cease-fire, accusing Israel of violating the truce with continued military operations.

Palestinians fired three Qassam rockets at southern Israel today, hitting one home, while Israeli soldiers traded fire with a Palestinian fugitive hiding in a house in the northern West Bank, the Israeli army said.