Thousands of triumphant Palestinians poured into abandoned Jewish settlements early today, setting buildings on fire, ripping out window frames and shooting in the air.

Powerful explosions ripped apart headquarters and sent water and communication towers crashing to the ground today as Israel destroyed the last of its military facilities in the Gaza Strip and prepared to hand over the territory to the Palestinians early next week.

Thousands of Israeli troops marched into Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip today, delivering eviction notices in some communities, but encountering locked gates and protesters at others, as Israel’s historic pullout from the coastal territory got under way.

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 police today surrounded an encampment of opponents to the Gaza withdrawal, pushing back a surging crowd marching against the plans to demolish Jewish settlements.

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 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.

A large explosion rocked an Israeli army outpost in the Gaza Strip on today, wounding several people and threatening any peace deal with the Palestinians.

Facing the threat of civil war from Jewish settlers, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today nothing would deter him from pushing forward with a parliamentary vote on his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

Israeli troops killed five Palestinian militants today, including two Hamas gunmen who slipped across the fenced boundary with Gaza for a rare cross-border attack.

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 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.

Two Israelis were wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack in the Gaza Strip tonight, settlers and rescue services said.

Two Palestinians have been killed in separate incidents as Israel tightens its hold on the Palestinian areas.

Two Palestinians were killed in separate incidents today as Israel tightened its hold on the Palestinian areas.

A suicide bomber has killed himself and two Israelis in an attack near the Kissufim crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Israeli forces have retaliated against a grenade attack on one of its Gaza outposts by destroying a Palestinian police post and attacking farmland.

Israeli soldiers have shot and wounded a Palestinian near a Gaza crossing point.