THOUSANDS of Israeli troops began taking up positions in southern Israel yesterday, preparing to thwart an attempt by thousands of opponents of the upcoming Gaza withdrawal to march into the Gaza settlements.

Opponents of Israel's Gaza pullout were penned into a farming village today, surrounded by police and confused over their next move. Some of their leaders admitted defeat in what was to have been the most formidable protest yet - a march of thousands to Gaza to join the settlers there.

ISRAELI right-wingers clashed yesterday with police who blocked thousands of protesters from marching on Gaza settlements and trying to disrupt Israel’s pullout from the occupied strip.

Israeli police today put forces on one of the highest alert levels as a stand-off developed between thousands of security forces and Gaza withdrawal opponents determined to march to the coastal area despite a ban.

Israeli security forces clashed early today with Jewish settlers trying to break a blockade placed on Gaza Strip settlements, a preview to confrontations expected later in the day when opponents to a planned withdrawal from Gaza try to march to the coastal area despite a police ban.

Israel today threatened to invade Gaza if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas does not control militants who have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks ahead of Israel’s pullout from the territory next month.

Israeli troops today sealed off a cluster of Gaza Strip settlements marked for evacuation in order to stop an influx of hard-line pullout opponents, in the government’s most sweeping measure yet to prepare for next month’s withdrawal from 25 settlements.

TENS of thousands of people lined major highways around Israel on Monday to protest the nation's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements this summer - a likely taste of what's to come as the August pullout date nears.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned up the pressure on Israel to stop expanding West Bank settlements, it was revealed today.

A day of violence in which six people were killed threatened a four-month truce, but Israeli and Palestinian officials were making efforts to hold the line.

AN Israeli aircraft yesterday fired at a group of Hamas militants who were about to shoot mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, a move which threatened a fragile ceasefire declared in February.

An Israeli aircraft today fired at a group of Hamas militants who were launching mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in the first such airstrike since a ceasefire was declared in February.

An Israeli aircraft today fired at a group of Hamas militants who were preparing to shoot mortar shells at a Jewish settlement, the army and witnesses said, the first such airstrike since a fragile cease-fire was declared in February.

PALESTINIAN militants fired two rockets yesterday at a Jewish settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip, with one landing near thousands of Israelis protesting against this summer's planned withdrawal from the area.

Palestinian militants fired two rockets today at a Jewish settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip, with one landing near thousands of Israelis protesting against this summer’s planned withdrawal from the area. An Israeli soldier was lightly hurt by shrapnel.

Israel’s parliament removed the last legislative obstacle before implementation of this summer’s pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank, easily passing the state budget and saving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government from collapse.

Israel agreed in principle yesterday to evacuate a road along the Gaza-Egypt border that has been a major flashpoint of violence in recent years, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said after a Palestinian official warned that continued Israeli military patrols there would invite attacks.

A Palestinian man has been found dead outside the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza.

troops shot dead a seven-year-old Palestinian girl in a Gaza refugee camp yesterday, medics said, after militants wounded four Israelis in a mortar attack on a nearby Jewish settlement.

TENS of thousands of Israelis were forming a human chain yesterday in a mass show of strength against government plans to pull all Jewish settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip.

PALESTINIAN militants set off a huge explosion at an Israeli army outpost in the Gaza Strip yesterday, causing a concrete building to collapse.

A large explosion went off today near an Israeli army base in the Gaza Strip, causing a number of casualties, according to paramedics and the army.

PALESTINIAN gunmen killed a pregnant Jewish settler and her four daughters in Gaza yesterday as members of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's party voted on his controversial plan to evacuate the territory.

Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli vehicle near the entrance of a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, killing four children and their mother, the Israeli army said. Two attackers were killed.

A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gun point in the Gaza Strip.

Israel is in the final stages of legalising new West Bank settlements, a violation of its commitments to the United States and to an internationally backed peace plan.

Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinians after the soldiers disturbed a group of men apparently setting up an ambush on a road used by Jewish settlers, Israeli military sources said.

Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip today killed three Palestinians after the soldiers disturbed a group of men apparently setting up an ambush on a road used by Jewish settlers, Israeli military sources said.

Israel has pressed ahead relentlessly with its hunt for Palestinian militants, killing a Hamas fugitive in an air strike and sending bulldozers into Gaza to flatten cover for cross-border rocket attacks.

ISRAELI soldiers killed an 11-year-old boy and wounded a TV news cameraman when they fired towards Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday.

Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire today in a Jewish settlement, wounding two Thai workers and an Israeli, radio reports said.

Israeli troops and tanks searching for militants today charged into Palestinian areas at the northern and southern ends of the Gaza Strip before dawn.

Several people have been injured after two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Gaza Strip this afternoon.

A baby has been seriously wounded by Palestinian militants who fired mortar rounds at a Jewish settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's new defence minister has came under fire from Palestinian snipers.