Israeli tank shells hit a compound housing a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets outside.

Palestinian militants fired a volley of rockets into Israel today threatening to reignite violence just hours after a ceasefire had been called.

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.

Only a few thousand Palestinians braved a rainy day to demonstrate against Israel's blockade of their territory today, a far smaller turnout than expected.

Israeli troops killed six Hamas gunmen and a teacher in the northern Gaza Strip today in escalating violence that is hampering peace efforts.

Hamas militiamen detained 32 Fatah supporters across Gaza, half of them after breaking up a party and beating guests with clubs and chairs, Fatah officials and witnesses said today.

Israeli aircraft attacked Palestinian rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip today, the army said, as Israel persisted in its two-week operation meant to stop the crude projectiles.

In its first attack inside the Gaza Strip in nearly two months, Israeli forces wounded three Islamic Jihad gunmen who were preparing to launch rockets into Israel from northern Gaza today, witnesses and the army said.

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu today said Israel has refused him permission to lead a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Israel has blocked a UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip that was to be led by Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, officials said today.

Israel appears to be dragging its feet over a fact-finding mission that was to be led by Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu to the Gaza Strip.

Israeli ground troops, tanks and armoured vehicles advanced into two Gaza Strip towns today in pursuit of Palestinian rocket squads, even as the Red Cross - in a major blow to aid efforts – suspended activities in the impoverished territory after two of its workers were briefly kidnapped.

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.

Ten years after it started broadcasts that shook up Arab and Western leaders, Al-Jazeera today launched an English-language news channel aimed at bringing the Arab take on the news to the rest of the world.

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

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he would be willing to sacrifice his job if the international community would lift economic sanctions that have crippled his Hamas-led government.

Thousands marched through Middle Eastern capitals today to protest an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, their calls often spilling into a broader outcry against America’s policy in the region and its backing of Israel.

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

Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting this weekend to forge a response to the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 50 people in the past few days, the head of the Arab League said today.

Tens of thousands of grieving Gazans, weeping in anguish and screaming for revenge, crammed into a cemetery today to bury 18 civilians killed by an errant Israeli artillery barrage that tore through a crowded residential neighbourhood.

Eighteen ambulances, flanked by Palestinian police cars, began the slow procession from hospital morgues in northern Gaza to the cemetery where 18 victims of an Israeli artillery attack were to be buried today.

Hamas' supreme leader today called off a ceasefire with Israel and militants threatened to attack Americans after 18 members of a family, including eight children, were killed in an Israeli artillery barrage on a densely populated neighbourhood.

Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip early today, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including 10 children, as they slept, health officials said.

Israeli tank shells landed in a residential neighbourhood north of Beit Hanoun early today, killing at least 18 people in their sleep.

Israeli forces pulled out of the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun before daybreak today, completing a weeklong sweep that killed more than 50 Palestinians.

A female suicide bomber approached Israeli troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun today and blew herself up, the army and Palestinian residents said.

A Palestinian youth was killed in an Israeli airstrike today on a northern Gaza Strip refugee camp, Palestinian officials said.

Pope Benedict XVI told the faithful today that he was very worried about the “grave deterioration” of the situation in Gaza, and called on all sides to work to stop the bloodshed and to immediately resume direct and concrete negotiations.

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan urged Israel to “do their utmost” to protect civilians after two Palestinian women were killed as they marched into a Gaza combat zone to help free gunmen besieged at a mosque.

MILITANTS holed up inside a Gaza mosque besieged by Israeli troops escaped yesterday after hundreds of women who streamed there to serve as human shields provided cover for their flight, the army said.

Israeli forces today opened fire on a group of women who streamed to a Gaza mosque to serve as human shields for gunmen holed up there, killing one and wounding 10, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and ground troops tightened their grip today on a northern Gaza town, killing an elderly civilian, two militants and a police officer in Israel’s biggest push in months to stop Palestinian rocket fire.

Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and ground troops tightened their grip today on a northern Gaza town they overran yesterday, killing two Palestinians in Israel’s biggest push in months to stop militant rocket fire.

Hamas militiamen withdrew from the streets of the Gaza Strip today and returned to their normal posts after the worst day of internal violence since Hamas took control of the Palestinian government in March.

An Israeli airstrike on a car driving through the northern Gaza Strip killed two people today, Palestinian security sources said.

Three Palestinians were killed this morning in an Israeli military strike near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, Palestinian medical officials said.

RESIDENTS of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza dug through the rubble of their damaged homes and UN schools yesterday, after Israeli troops pulled out following a two-day incursion aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets at Israel.

Residents of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza dug through the rubble of their damaged homes, bridges and UN schools today, after Israeli troops pulled out following a two-day incursion aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets at Israel.

Israel today bombed the empty Palestinian Foreign Ministry building for the second time in less than a week, calling it a warning to the ruling Hamas and keeping up pressure as it searched for a kidnapped soldier.

Israel has rebuffed a ceasefire call from the Palestinian premier while leaving behind a wide path of destruction in northern Gaza and pounding militants in Gaza City with airstrikes.

Israeli forces renewed airstrikes at armed Palestinians in northern Gaza early today after a bloody day of clashes in which militants with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades faced Israeli tanks and attack helicopters.

Israeli forces today took over an area of northern Gaza that used to be home to three Jewish settlements, creating a temporary buffer zone meant to prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets at Israeli towns and cities.

Militants holding an Israeli soldier today said they would give no further information about him because Israel ignored a deadline to release Palestinian prisoners.