The European Union announced details of new aid for the Palestinians, raising the 2005 total to €280m today – a day before talks between the four parties that drive the Mideast peace process.

Pragmatism won out over ideology today as hundreds of Gaza residents took a first step toward co-operating with the government’s plan to evacuate the coastal strip next month.

Tensions are high along the Gaza strip after mourners in the town of Rafah buried two members of the militant group Hamas, who attacked and killed four Israeli soldiers at a military post during the week.

The Israeli army has ploughed up runways at the Palestinian-controlled Gaza International Airport in the latest act of revenge for a Hamas attack on Israeli soldiers earlier this week.

Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers have reportedly ripped up the runway at Gaza International Airport, a vital link between Palestine and the rest of the world, and have cut an access road to the airport, according to local officials.

Israeli tanks were today reported to have entered Gaza airport, after warplanes destroyed two of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s helicopters in Gaza and blasted West Bank security installations.

The Israeli Government has banned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from using Gaza International Airport, meaning he will have to pass through Israeli checkpoints any time he tries to leave his homeland.

Dozens of Palestinians have been wounded in the latest violence in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, hours after an Israeli helicopter gunship rocket killed a Palestinian militant.