Hamas has rejected an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire with Israel, a senior official with the Palestinian militant group said today.

An Israeli envoy held talks with Egyptian officials today on a ceasefire in his country’s offensive on Gaza as Israel widened the range of its targets, striking more than a dozen homes of Hamas militants and two media officials.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have agreed to end their weeks-long hunger strike after Israel agreed to improve jail conditions.

Three Palestinians were killed in fresh Israeli air raids in Gaza yesterday, raising the death toll to 18, as militants fired more rockets into the Jewish state.

Israel pounded Gaza for the second day in a row today, trading airstrikes and rocket fire with Palestinian militants and killing 15 of them as the deadliest Gaza violence in over a year showed no signs of abating.

Gaza militants launched barrages of rockets deep into Israel early today and Israeli aircraft struck targets in the Palestinian territory in the aftermath of the deadliest attack against Israelis in three years.

ISRAELI and Palestinian officials floated a ceasefire yesterday to end an upsurge of violence in Gaza, as Israel warned of a still stronger response if rocket fire from the coastal strip continues.

Palestinian militants fired more than a dozen rockets at southern Israel today and Israeli warplanes killed four militants in the Gaza Strip in the most intense fighting since Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Israeli secret service agents have been accused of kidnapping a Palestinian engineer from a Ukrainian train in the middle of the night.

Israel has launched air strikes against targets in Gaza, after a rocket was fired into the Israeli city of Ashkelon yesterday.

ISRAELI naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip yesterday, killing as many as 19 people in a botched raid that provoked international outrage and a diplomatic crisis.

Israeli antiquities authorities operating under heavy police guard began relocating ancient graves today to make way for construction of a hospital emergency room, setting off protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews who say Jewish remains are being disturbed

A Hamas leader assassinated during a visit to Dubai last month exposed himself to attack when he breached security protocol by talking about his trip over the phone and making hotel reservations on the internet, the militant Islamic group said today.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened painful retaliation against Gaza militants today for rockets still hitting Israel six weeks after its military halted an offensive that was supposed to have stopped them for good.

A long-range rocket from Gaza landed in an Israeli city today, police said.

An Israeli military spokesman says that Palestinian militants fired a rocket from Gaza toward Ashkelon.

IN her letter (January 14), Miriam Cotton claimed Steven King’s column (January 7) on Israeli actions in Gaza embodied an astounding “distortion of fact and history”.

Israeli troops advanced into Gaza suburbs for the first time early today, residents said, hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Islamic militants that they face an “iron fist” unless they agree to Israeli terms for an end to war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel rained bombs and leaflets on Gaza, pounding suspected rocket sites and tunnels used by Hamas militants and warning of a wider offensive despite frantic diplomacy to end the bloodshed.

Israel said today it will not stop its offensive in the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Egypt was preparing to meet representatives of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority today in an attempt to halt the fighting in Gaza.

Egypt's UN Ambassador tonight said representatives of Israel, the Palestinians and Hamas have agreed to meet tomorrow for talks brokered by Egypt.

FOR Palestinians hunkered down under Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip, among the most powerful symbols of the conflict are the homemade rockets militants have fired at Israel, and which Israel says it is now determined to stop.

Israel bowed to international pressure today to allow hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports to leave besieged Gaza.

Israel showed no sign of slowing a blistering seven-day offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza today.

Palestinian militants sent a deadly barrage of missiles flying deep into Israel, demonstrating Hamas still had firepower three days into Israel’s punishing air offensive in Gaza.

ISRAEL obliterated symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what the defence minister described yesterday as a “war to the bitter end,” striking next to the Hamas premier’s home, and devastating a security compound and a university building.

Israel today warned the people of Gaza that its attacks which have so far killed more than 300 were a "war to the bitter end".

HAMAS militants pounded southern Israel with a barrage of rockets yesterday, hours after Israeli forces killed six gunmen in a fresh bout of violence that threatened to unravel a five-month-old truce that has brought relief to both Gaza and southern Israel.

IN his feature article (May 19), Elias Khoury perpetuates many falsehoods about the history of Israel which I would like to challenge.

The fragile and brief peace between Israel and militant Palestinians was shattered today in a blast of rocket and air attacks.

Israeli ground troops pulled out of northern Gaza before daybreak today, following the first extended sweep in their offensive against Palestinian rocket salvos that has left more than 100 dead and led the Palestinian president to call off US-sponsored peace talks.

Israel today rejected growing international criticism of its crackdown on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, pushing forward with an offensive that has killed more than 100 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, in recent days.

Fifty-four people, including two dozen civilians, were killed as clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants escalated today.

Eleven Palestinians, including five civilians, died late yesterday and early today in escalating Israeli-Palestinian fighting that renewed threats of an Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Gaza was faced with the threat on a full-scale Israeli invasion tonight after a barrage of Palestinian rocket attacks hit border towns.

An Israeli student was killed by a Palestinian rocket which landed on a college campus outside Gaza today.

An Israeli warplane today attacked the home of a senior Palestinian militant killed by Israeli troops last week.

Israeli troops backed by airstrikes today killed five Palestinians, including two civilians, in an operation against rocket launchers in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and Palestinian medics said.

Palestinian militants fired a Russian-made rocket into southern Israel today, police said, signalling a possible escalation by armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad militants launched home-made rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip today in retaliation for Israel's continuing military operations against their group in the West Bank.

Israel today promised a punishing response to the first deadly Palestinian rocket attack on the Israeli town of Sderot since the Gaza Strip evacuation last year, even as Palestinian leaders and international envoys pursued diplomatic efforts to spur deadlocked peacemaking.

An Israeli woman died from wounds sustained today in a Palestinian rocket attack on the southern town of Sderot.

Israel will keep targeting Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza despite the risk of inadvertently hitting civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.