A senior Hamas leader has said the group is willing to talk directly to Israel, reversing a previous ban.

The Israeli PM’s claim that his country won a “great military and political” victory over Hamas in the latest round of fighting in the Gaza Strip has met with scepticism from many of his people, according to a poll.

Medical officials in Gaza City say an Israeli air strike has killed four people who were attending a funeral.

A senior Hamas official has told supporters at a rally that the war with Israel will not be over until the group’s demands for a lifting of the Gaza blockade are met.

Germany, France and Britain have proposed reactivating a European Union mission on the Egypt-Gaza border to help stabilise the Palestinian enclave after a month-long war, a German diplomatic source said.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas meant to last at least three days and end nearly a month of fighting has come into effect in the Gaza Strip.

Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip yesterday in an apparent winding-down of the nearly month-long operation against Hamas that has left more than 1,800 Palestinians and 60 Israelis dead.

At least 35 Palestinians have been killed by shelling in Gaza and the Israeli military says one of its soldiers may have been abducted.

The three-day Gaza ceasefire has begun after heavy Israel-Hamas fighting early today.

Israel has said it is calling up another 16,000 reservists, giving the military the ability to substantially widen its bloody Gaza offensive.

Israel uncovered more than a dozen cross-border tunnels and engaged in gun battles with Hamas militants today on the second day of its open-ended ground operation in Gaza, as the Palestinian death toll there topped 300.

The death toll from Israel’s 12-day offensive against Hamas militants has topped 300, a Gaza’s health ministry has said.

Israel has fired missiles at the homes of four top Hamas leaders, the militant group said, in a resumed bombardment of Gaza following a failed Egyptian ceasefire effort.

People in Gaza fear further bombardment after Israel warned tens of thousands in the north and east to leave their homes.

The Israeli military continues to strike Palestinian targets across the Gaza Strip amidst threats of a broad ground offensive.

The Israeli army has intensified its offensive on the Gaza Strip, striking Hamas sites and killing at least 14 people on the second day of a military operation.

President Barack Obama is urging Israelis and Palestinians to restrain themselves and put an end to acts of retribution in the recent round of violence.

Three Israeli suspects in the killing of a Palestinian teenager who was abducted and burned to death last week confessed to the crime and were re-enacting the incident for authorities, an official said, as the country’s leaders raced to contain a public uproar over the slaying.

Three Israeli suspects over the killing of a Palestinian teenager who was abducted and burned to death last week have confessed, an official said.

Israel has eased some border restrictions as part of its truce with the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers, Gaza residents said today, allowing farmers to visit land near its security fence and letting fishermen head further out to sea.

A ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers brought an end to eight days of the fiercest fighting in years and possibly signalling a new era of relations between the bitter enemies.

Israel and the Hamas militant group edged closer to a ceasefire to end the week-long Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, but a deal remained elusive after a day of furious diplomatic efforts.

Almost a decade after their daughter was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she tried to block its path in a Gaza Strip conflict zone, Rachel Corrie’s parents are preparing for a judge’s ruling in their high-profile civil lawsuit against the military.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza celebrated the homecoming today of their prisoners and demanded militants seize more Israeli soldiers for future exchanges.

EGYPT’S military has begun an operation to close a network of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza border following tension with Israel.

Egypt’s military has began an operation to close a network of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza border following tension with Israel.

Egypt will open its only crossing with the Gaza Strip this weekend, the Cairo military government announced today, significantly easing a four-year blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory but setting up a potential conflict with Israel.

PALESTINIAN rockets struck deep inside Israel, landing closer to the urban sprawl south of Tel Aviv, and Israeli aircraft pounded targets in Gaza in a surging conflict that has raised fears of a new war.

Israel agreed today to ease its land blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, hoping to quell growing international criticism after a deadly sea raid.

AN Irish emergency aid convoy carrying medical supplies to the blockaded Palestinian enclave of Gaza has been stranded in Jordan for the last five days.

Five people died when a tunnel under the Gaza border collapsed early today.

Israeli jets and ground troops continued to hammer Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip and Islamic militants fired barrages of rockets at southern Israeli cities, defying a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

International outrage grew over civilian deaths in Gaza tonight after an Israeli bombardment killed at least 34 people, many of them children, near a UN school.

Israel’s military said tonight that ground forces are crossing the Gaza border, in an expansion of Israel’s week-old offensive against Hamas.

Israeli defence officials have just said that ground forces are crossing the Gaza border.

Israel sent more troops to the Gaza border, rapidly moving forward with preparations for a possible ground offensive as the next stage of its military assault on the coastal territory’s Hamas rulers.

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.

Israeli airstrikes continued to batter the Gaza strip for a third day today with government buildings coming under fire for the first time.

Israel has called up thousands of reserve soldiers for a possible ground invasion as it widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Warplanes pressing one of Israel’s deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants dropped bombs and missiles on a top security installation, a mosque, a TV station and dozens of other targets across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip today.

International pressure was mounting on Israel and the Palestinians today, but the violence showed no sign of abating as the death toll from the bombing blitz rose towards the 300 mark.

Israeli warplanes blasted targets all over Gaza early today, including a mosque and a TV station, after a day of intensive airstrikes that killed more than 200 Palestinians.

The world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said today.