Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon struggled to keep his fragile coalition intact today after the Cabinet approved his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip by 2005.

Israeli troops killed five Palestinians early today during a shoot-out in the southern Gaza Strip, doctors in the local hospital said.

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two suspected Palestinian militants after they detonated an explosion near a road leading to the Ganei Tal Jewish settlement.

Five Palestinian children, aged between seven and 14, were killed in a Gaza Strip blast today after one of them hit an unexploded Israeli tank shell as they walked to school.