Pakistan’s government minister for religious minorities died today after being shot by gunmen in the capital Islamabad, hospital officials said.

Israel ignored mounting international calls for a ceasefire, vowing not to stop its crippling 10-day assault until “peace and tranquillity” was achieved in towns in the line of Palestinian rocket fire.

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.

On its first day of full rule in Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas today announced that it was granting amnesty to senior Fatah leaders, signalling that it is seeking conciliation with the defeated forces of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Fierce gun battles raged in the streets of Gaza City today between forces of the rival Hamas and Fatah movements, killing at least four people in renewed factional violence that left a shaky truce in tatters.

Israeli troops and tanks pulled out of northern Gaza early today after a bloody two-day sweep, killing 29 Palestinians, but Israeli aircraft pounded the area.

A powerful explosion ripped through Palestinian intelligence headquarters today, killing one man and wounding six, including the intelligence chief, security officials said.

ISLAMIC Jihad’s most senior commander in the Gaza Strip was killed yesterday by an explosion that tore through his car.

A truck carrying masked militants and two home-made rockets blew up at a Hamas rally in Jebaliya, Gaza, today, killing at least 10 Palestinians and wounding 85, hospital doctors said.

Dozens of gunmen shot dead a cousin of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat early today after storming his home.

ISRAELI helicopters attacked a Hamas training camp in Gaza City early yesterday, killing at least 14 people in the deadliest air strike on Palestinian militants in four years.

Israeli helicopters attacked a Hamas training field in Gaza City, killing at least 13 militants and wounding 25 other Palestinians, witnesses said, in the bloodiest incident there in four months.

PALESTINIAN gunmen twice broke into a Gaza City hospital and killed convicted collaborators with Israeli intelligence, hours after they were admitted for treatment of wounds suffered when a grenade exploded in their prison cell.

Five masked men broke into a Gaza hospital today and shot dead a convicted collaborator who had been wounded in a grenade attack in his Palestinian prison just hours earlier.

Israeli military officials today identified Mahmoud Zahar, a surgeon and prominent Hamas hard-liner, as the new leader of the Islamic militant group in the Gaza Strip.

AFTER Israel’s assassination of two of its leaders in less than a month, Hamas has decided to keep the identity of its new supremo in the Palestinian territories a secret.

HAMAS threatened a "volcano of revenge" against Israel yesterday as some 200,000 Palestinians packed the streets of Gaza for the funeral of the Islamic movement's assassinated leader Abdelaziz Rantissi.

Israeli forces killed Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the violent Hamas movement, in a missile attack in Gaza early today, an attack that is expected to to escalate Palestinian-Israeli violence dramatically.

ISRAELI helicopters fired two missiles at a car driving through the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing three people including two Hamas militants.

An Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile that blew apart a car carrying members of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza City today, killing a bodyguard of the militantgroup’s leader and a 12-year-old boy, witnesses and doctors said.

A vehicle was blown apart in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City today, critically wounding the bodyguard of an Islamic Jihad leader and killing a 12-year-old boy, witnesses and doctors said.

A PALESTINIAN suicide bombing at a bus stop outside Tel Aviv killed four young Israelis just minutes after an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car in Gaza, killing a senior Islamic Jihad commander and four others.

An Israeli airstrike has killed three members of a Hamas leader's family in Gaza City today.

Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and 10 other people were wounded today after Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a house in Gaza City.

Israel targeted a senior Hamas leader in a missile strike in Gaza City today, injuring him in the right leg and killing two bystanders, doctors said. Two dozen people were hurt.

The Israeli air force struck a target in the southern part of Gaza City tonight, witnesses said.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today donated blood for the victims of the US terror attacks and condemned ‘‘this horrible attack.’’

Three masked men have shot and killed the director of Palestinian Television in Gaza City.