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Israeli air strike adds to Gaza toll

Jewish settlers have attacked a group of Palestinian farmers with rocks and sticks, wounding at least three people.

Ibrahim Salah said his family was working in its field of olive trees west of Nablus when about 50 settlers descended on the area, some of them wielding metal bars and carrying guns.

He said his son, Basel, was hit on the head by rocks and taken to a hospital. Witnesses said four other people were lightly wounded.

Israeli troops arrived shortly after the incident and dispersed the crowd, evacuating Salah to a hospital, the army said.

The incident occurred near Havat Gilad, one of two dozen unauthorised West Bank outposts the Israeli government has pledged to dismantle.

Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, and US-led road map peace deal of 2002 called for a freeze on their construction.

Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said three Palestinians and one settler were lightly wounded in Wednesday's violence.

He said the farmers did not coordinate their work with the authorities, as is customary during the harvest season.

'Rampant construction'

Repeated attacks by settlers in recent years have led the army to dispatch troops to protect the farmers during the harvest season.

The olive harvest this year is expected to yield a bumper crop, making it essential to the economic survival of cash-strapped Palestinians.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Jewish settlements are expanding in the occupied West Bank in defiance of Israeli law, citing a government report.

The paper said the findings came from a secret government two-year study that came across "rampant construction".

Thursday 02 November 2006, 16:36 Makka Time, 13:36 GMT

The killings took place in the northern town of Bait Hanun
Related:
Eight die in Israel's Gaza offensive
Israeli tank fire kills Palestinian
Egypt ups security at Gaza border

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Israeli troops have killed four Palestinians in northern Gaza, two of them civilians, in one of its biggest operations in the strip in months, medical officials have said.

Witnesses said soldiers, backed by tanks and using loudspeakers, ordered all residents over 16 years of age in the town of Beit Hanoun to present themselves at a school for questioning. The town of 30,000 people has been effectively under an army curfew since the Israeli troops entered the town on Wednesday, the witnesses said.

The latest casualties bring to 13 the number of Palestinians killed since Wednesday

Although the army operation is aimed partly at halting rocket fire at the Jewish state from northern Gaza, militants launched four homemade missiles at the nearby Israeli border town of Sderot, wounding one person, medical officials said.

Peace talks

"Residents are in panic as the sound of gunfire and explosions never stops. The curfew is very, very tight"

Yamen Hamad, a local journalist
The Thursday's offensive has further weakened the prospects of resuming peace talks between the two sides, already minimal since the Hamas movement took office in March after winning elections. Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Hamas has said the bloodshed can also complicate Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at arranging a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for an Israeli soldier abducted by militants in a cross-border raid last June.

"Residents are in panic as the sound of gunfire and explosions never stops. The curfew is very, very tight," Yamen Hamad, a local journalist, told Reuters by telephone.

One Israeli soldier has been killed in the raid. More than half the Palestinians killed were said to be militants.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said all men in Beit Hanoun had been asked to gather in one place to answer questions.

"I have no doubt that the vast majority will then be allowed to return home unhindered. This is intended to avoid friction and reduce shooting incidents," she said.

Relatives said one of the civilians killed on Thursday, a 75-year-old man, was shot by troops on a rooftop when he went onto the balcony of his home to take his disabled son inside. But the army said its forces were targeting only militants.

Among the dead was a Hamas gunman who worked as a bodyguard for Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, witnesses said.

Hospital officials said 15 people had been wounded, including four children and a woman injured when a tank shell hit their house.

The assault is one of the biggest since Israel launched an offensive in Gaza to try to force the release of the captured soldier and to halt the rocket fire.

More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the four-month-old offensive, about half of them civilians. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Saturday 04 November 2006, 0:11 Makka Time, 21:11 GMT

Around 200 Palestinian women marched towards the mosque Tools: Email Article Print Article Send Your Feedback

Two Palestinian women have been killed during a stand-off near a Gaza mosque while trying to rescue about 60 Palestinian fighters besieged inside.

The events came on the third day of an Israeli assault on the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the largest operation Israel has conducted in the Gaza Strip in months.

On Friday, about 200 Palestinian women marched towards the al-Nasir mosque in Beit Hanoun, which Israeli forces surrounded on Thursday, in an attempt to rescue fighters who had taken shelter in the mosque during the Israeli incursion.

The women had responded to an appeal from Hamas broadcast on local radio stations.

Israeli forces opened fire on the women, killing two and injuring six others.

The Israeli army later confirmed that the fighters had managed to escape.

'Human shields'

Elham Hamad, a Palestinian woman who attended the protests, told Aljazeera: "We were confronted by a tank, and we raised a white flag [but] without any warning they started shooting at us.

"We were confronted by a tank and we raised a white flag [but] without any warning they started shooting at us"

Palestinian woman protester "A number of women, including me, fell injured. We remained for a long time without any aid or ambulances."

However the Israeli army said that Hamas had used the women "as human shields".

Major Avital Leibovich, an Israeli army spokeswoman, said: "This is a clear example of use of innocent population for terror."

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed since Israeli troops entered Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in a bid to halt rocket attacks on southern Israel. One Israeli soldier has also died.

On Friday Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, called for international intervention to end Israeli military operations in Gaza.

He said in a statement: "The president asks the international community to intervene immediately to stop the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and massacres committed for the last three days."

Escape

Meanwhile at least two more Israeli airstrikes on Friday evening killed at least two more Palestinians, Palestinian security officials said.

The Palestinian prime minister said the raids were terrorism The first reportedly hit a mosque near Beit Hanoun, injuring three more people, witnesses told AFP. The second, in the town of Beit Lahiya, killed a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and wounded another, medical sources said.

At a Hamas rally after nightfall on Thursday in Gaza City, Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, called the Israeli offensive "terrorism".

Despite the Israeli assault, Palestinian fighters still managed to fire six homemade missiles at the Israeli border town of Sderot on Thursday, wounding at least two people, medical officials said.

More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the four-month-old offensive in the coastal territory, about half of them civilians. Three Israeli soldiers have also died.

Sunday 05 November 2006, 3:53 Makka Time, 0:53 GMT

Hamas is burying its dead fighters Related: Hamas fighter killed in air strike

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Israeli snipers killed two Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, one of them a 12-year-old girl, Palestinian sources said.

Six others, including at least four fighters, were killed in air strikes and clashes.

Israeli soldiers briefly eased their grip on the northern town of Beit Hanoun, but as darkness fell soldiers began house-to-house searches, local residents said.

The violence followed one of Gaza's bloodiest days in months, when 19 people were killed as Israel continued an operation it says is aimed at stopping rocket fire by Palestinian fighters.

The 12-year-old girl was killed by a single bullet to the head, local hospital workers said.

An Israeli army spokesman said a sniper had spotted an armed fighter and had fired at him but that the girl was killed as the armed man got out of the line of fire. Another man, said to be a 38-year-old civilian was also shot dead by sniper fire, local residents said.

One fighter was killed in battles with Israeli soldiers backed by tanks near Beit Hanoun, home to some 30,000 Palestinians, witnesses said.

'Massacre'

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, who has described the operation as a "massacre," called on the UN Security Council to convene to discuss the issue, his spokesman said.

Abbas "sent a message to the head of the Security Council asking him to convene immediately to discuss the tragic situation in Gaza because of Israeli aggression, which has killed 42 Palestinians so far," Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

The violence has put back any resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Among the dead on Saturday were two Hamas fighters, killed in a missile strike near the Jabalya refugee camp, medical officials said. A 16-year-old boy was also killed in the strike.

Earlier a local Hamas commander was killed in an air raid in Gaza City that wounded four other fighters, medics said.

Some 14 Palestinians were also wounded in various strikes and clashes, hospital officials added.

An 18-year-old civilian wounded by Israeli gunfire earlier on Saturday, later died in hospital, medical workers said.

Three men wounded in the fighting since the offensive, named "Operation Autumn Clouds", began on Wednesday also died of their wounds, hospital workers said.

Israeli forces have killed 45 people in the four-day assault, the Palestinian health ministry said.

**ALL articles are taken from www.aljazeera.co.uk **

Monday 06 November 2006, 18:04 Makka Time, 15:04 GMT

An Israeli airstrike has killed two Palestinian youths in a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

The airstrike on a mini-van parked in the Jebaliya camp also wounded nine other children, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza reported.

A Palestinian security official said the minivan was empty at the time of the strike and that the dead and wounded were bystanders.

Muhammad Matar, a local resident, said a group of Palestinian resistance fighters had gathered on a street corner near a kindergarten and that the strike was aimed at them.

None of the fighters were wounded, Matar said.

The Israeli army said an air strike in the same area "... was an attack on a Qassam [rocket] launching cell in the area of Beit Lahiya. They came to pick up their launchers that were used yesterday to fire at Israel, two Qassams. We identified hitting them".

Suicide attack

A Palestinian woman blew herself up when Israeli soldiers stormed her house in Gaza, witnesses said.

"A woman came close to our forces and she was carrying an explosive device, she blew herself up, killing herself and lightly wounding one soldier, in the northern town of Beit Hanoun," the Israeli spokesperson said.

Israeli forces have been carrying out an offensive in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza since last week.

Thirty-four rockets have struck Israel since Wednesday.

Two members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were later wounded in a second air strike north of Gaza City, witnesses said.

The Israeli military said it had hit fighters armed with anti-tank missiles who were approaching the security fence on the Gaza border.

Fifty-two Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 injured in the offensive.

Tuesday 07 November 2006, 13:11 Makka Time, 10:11 GMT

Many buildings in Beit Hanoun have been destroyed

At least six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip after the army pulled out of the northern town of Beit Hanoun.

East of the Jebaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City, three Palestinians, including one woman, were killed when a shell struck the home of Jemila Shanti, a Hamas politician, Palestinian sources said.

The Israeli army said a tank opened fire after two rocket-propelled grenades were launched at their soldiers. It said it was responding to the attack and did not target a specific house.

Last Thursday, Shanti organised a protest by hundreds of women that allowed Palestinian men to escape from a northern Gaza mosque which was under Israeli siege.

Also on Tuesday, two members of Islamic Jihad were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the coastal Sudniya region, medics said. The army said it had fired on two armed men approaching south of Beit Hanoun.

Another Palestinian, a member of the armed wing of Hamas, was killed during an exchange of fire.

The latest attacks brought the total number of Palestinians killed since last Wednesday to at least 61.

Rocket attacks

Residents confirmed that the Israeli army had left Beit Hanoun overnight.

Israel started the latest offensive on Wednesday, saying it wanted to stop Palestinian fighters from launching homemade rockets and as part of an ongoing operation to retrieve a soldier captured four months ago.

Despite the operation, 36 makeshift rockets have been fired into Israel since then, lightly wounding three people.

"We withdrew our forces from Beit Hanoun after having completed our mission," an Israeli military spokesman said.

Weapons seized

The Israeli spokesman said significant numbers of rockets, anti-tank weapons, explosives and other munitions had been seized.

"We withdrew our forces from Beit Hanoun after having completed our mission"

Israeli army spokesman
Residents reported that Israeli armoured vehicles had withdrawn from the centre of the town during the night to its northern outskirts, close to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Ali Uda, a doctor at a hospital in Beit Hanoun, said: "Twenty-four tanks were posted around the hospital. Now I can't see a single one."

After the withdrawal, residents left their homes to bury the dead and examine the destruction from the week-long offensive. Several homes had been demolished and dozens partially damaged.

Destruction

Electricity and telephone networks, along with many roads and water pipes, have been destroyed, witnesses told Al Jazeera.

Khalil Yazji, a police officer, said: "This is the worst raid we have ever witnessed. The Israeli army has brought destruction into every single street and nearly into every single house. This is the tsunami of Beit Hanoun."

The latest offensive was part of a larger operation by Israeli forces that moved back into Gaza four months ago after an Israeli soldier was captured by Palestinian fighters.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed since.

Wednesday 08 November 2006, 14:40 Makka Time, 11:40 GMT
BEIT HANUN, GAZA STRIP - : The morning sun shines on water stained with Palestinian blood covering a street in Beit Hanun after an Israeli military operation in which Israeli tanks fired on homes in the northern Gaza Strip early 08 November 2006. (AFP)

The Israeli attack was one of the most deadly in recent years

Israel has apologised for an artillery barrage which killed 19 civilians in Gaza, as the Palestinian government declared three days of mourning to commemorate those who died.

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, called the deaths in Beit Hanoun "a regrettable incident".

"The Israeli military does not intend to harm civilians - that is never our aim. But in the framework of such things, incidents like these happen," Livni said.

The killings happened a day after Israel started to withdraw its tanks from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza after a week-long offensive in which dozens died.

At least 13 members of one extended family died as they were sleeping when tank fire hit their home in Wednesday's incident.

Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, said that his party, Hamas, would take revenge for the attack and he called on Arab and Islamic nations to support the Palestinians.

"Why does the Arab League not convene? Why does the Islamic Conference Organisation not convene?" he told Aljazeera television.

"A nation is being slain, a land is being destroyed. Jerusalem, al-Aqsa mosque and Islamic and Christian shrines are being desecrated in the Palestinian lands."

Israel blames rocket attacks

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said in a statement that he regretted the attack but said that Israel's army had fired in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from firing rockets into Israel.

Amir Peretz, the Israeli defence minister, ordered the army to stop shelling Gaza until an investigation had been completed, his ministry said.

Beit Hanoun has borne the brunt of recent Israeli attacks

An army spokeswoman said that artillery had fired on an area used by Palestinians to fire rockets at Israeli cities.

Ten such projectiles exploded inside Israel over the past 24 hours, the spokeswoman said.

"This morning, we fired artillery shells to stop rocket fire. We fired on an area where the rockets are fired from. We are checking Palestinian reports that people who were not involved in the [rocket] fire were hit," she said.

Palestinian response

Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said that the killings had "destroyed all chances of peace".

"I think that now an international initiative to unblock the Palestinian situation is essential"

Massimo D'Alema,
Italian foreign minister

"You [the Israelis] do not want peace at all. You have destroyed all chances of peace and you should bear all the responsibility," he told reporters in Gaza City following the attack.

"Our people are at the end of our tether. We need to speak up to tell the world, from the UN to Europe, to examine these acts of atrocity committed by Israel because a worldwide reaction is needed to bring them to an end."

International reaction

Alvaro de Soto, the UN's envoy to the Middle East, called for an immediate end to Israeli military operations following the attack.

"Alvaro de Soto is deeply shocked and appalled by the IDF [Israel Defence Force] military action early today, in which a house in a residential area in Beit Hanoun was destroyed by a tank shell, killing a score of civilians including many women and children," his spokesman said in a statement.

At least seven children died in
the early morning attack

European nations said that the attack should spur international efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Massimo D'Alema, the Italian foreign minister, said: "This morning 18 people were massacred ... an escalation of violence I think is unacceptable.

"I think that now an international initiative to unblock the Palestinian situation is essential."

Several Arab and Islamic leaders condemned the attack but, despite Haniya's pleas, offered no promises to help the Palestinians financially or militarily.

Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, did however say that he was convening an emergency meeting to discuss an Arab response.

Thursday 09 November 2006, 18:11 Makka Time, 15:11 GMT

The bodies of two babies who died in the attack

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have attended the funerals of 18 civilians killed by Israeli shelling a day earlier.

Those being buried on Thursday included seven children and four women who all died when Israeli tanks fired on their home as they were sleeping on Wednesday morning.

The bodies were wrapped in the yellow flag of the Fatah movement and carried on stretchers among a vast crowd of mourners through the streets of Beit Hanoun.

Some mourners
collapsed in grief.

"We say, an eye for an eye and a soul for a soul. There will be no security in Ashkelon, no security in Tel Aviv or Haifa, until our people in Beit Hanoun are secured"

Abdul Hakim Awad,
Fatah member

One mourner, Abu Shabat, said: "All of us are feeling sad, and worried, too. We are going to bury this family and ask ourselves who is next? Me? My grandchildren? My neighbour?"

The cemetery, which had been under construction, was hastily opened to accommodate the victims because no other cemetery in town had enough land to allow the victims to be buried together.

The bodies arrived in a convoy of 18 ambulances, which brought them from hospital mortuaries through the artillery-scarred cluster of apartment buildings.

The freshly dug graves were lined up in a single row, each marked by a concrete block. A Palestinian flag fluttered over each grave. Two Israeli unmanned aircraft buzzed overhead.

A Fatah official addressed the crowds through a loudspeaker, and pledged vengeance on Israel. Armed men also walked in the procession and fired their weapons into the air.

Beit Hanoun has been the focus of a week-long Israeli offensive in which more than 80 Palestinians have died, at least half of them civilians. Wednesday's shelling came 24 hours after Israeli ground forces pulled back from Beit Hanoun.

All of the dead belonged to the al-Athamnas family, a prominent family in town that includes several doctors and professionals. Family members said they had fled during the recent Israeli offensive, returning home after Tuesday's pullout.

Response

Palestinian armed factions have called for the deaths to be avenged, while foreign governments have condemned the assault.

Abdul Hakim Awad, a member of the Fatah movement, said: "The killers in Israel, you will never be able to defeat one Palestinian child."

"We say, an eye for an eye and a soul for a soul. There will be no security in Ashkelon, no security in Tel Aviv or Haifa, until our people in Beit Hanoun are secured."

The bodies were wrapped in the
colours of the Fatah movement

Witnesses said that many of the dead were killed as they fled their homes after the first shells hit. The bombardment was the deadliest on Palestinian civilians in the past six years, and undermined the moves by Mahmoud Abbas, the president, to restart peace talks.

The 18 dead was the highest Palestinian civilian toll in a single incident since the current uprising against the Israeli occupation started in September 2000. The highest toll of Israelis was 29 killed in a Palestinian suicide bombing at a Passover gathering in March 2002.

Three-day mourning

"We are going to bury this family and ask ourselves, 'Who's next? Me? My grandchildren? My neighbour?"'

Abu Shabat,
mourner

Immediately after the killings, the Palestinian leadership declared three days of mourning. Shops remained shuttered on Thursday.

Khalid Mishaal, the exiled leader of the Palestinians' ruling Hamas group, cancelled a ceasefire with Israel that has largely held since February 2005.

Hamas's military wing also called for attacks against American targets - an appeal that Hamas political leaders in Gaza did not endorse.

The UN Security Council was to meet in special session later on Thursday. Palestinians hoped for a condemnation of Israel, on top of the denunciations Israel absorbed from governments worldwide after the attack.

Meanwhile, Israeli police, fearing revenge attacks, have stepped up their alert level, mobilising forces across the country.

Israeli military officials said the artillery was aimed at a target about 500m away. A senior commander said artillery aiming devices had malfunctioned, though a formal investigation is still under way.

Illegal Isreal has destroyed all chance's of peace!

"You (the Israelis) do not want peace at all. You have destroyed all chances of peace and you should bear all the responsibility," he told reporters in Gaza City following the attack in the northern town of Beit Hanun

Sunday 12 November 2006, 15:57 Makka Time, 12:57 GMT

The Israeli army has been carrying out an offensive in Gaza

Two teenagers have died as a result of Israeli rocket attacks in Gaza.

An 18-year-old Palestinian wounded by an Israeli strike in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp last week died in a Tel Aviv hospital on Sunday.

A second teenager, Abdallah Abu Namous, 16, died as a result of fresh Israeli attacks. Three people were also wounded in the attacks.

Abu Namous entered an area in northern Gaza that has been under attack from the Israeli army countering rocket fire from Palestinian fighters.

The Israel army claims that Israeli forces were targeting a Palestinian fighter who had launched three homemade rockets into Israel earlier the same day.

According to Palestinian security officials, Abu Namous had entered the area accidentally.

Since the beginning of November, 98 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, almost all of them in northern Gaza.

The bloodiest day of fighting in northern Gaza came last Wednesday, when an Israeli artillery shell killed 18 civilians in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

The teenagers' death brings the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000 to 5,560. The majority of whom have been Palestinians.

Monday 13 November 2006, 8:39 Makka Time, 5:39 GMT

Moussa (R) said the decision would 'send a message' to the US

Arab countries have agreed to lift the financial blockade on the Palestinians after the US vetoing of a draft United Nations resolution condemning the recent Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general, said at a meeting of the organisation in Cairo on Sunday: "There will be no compliance with any restriction imposed ... The Arab banks have to transfer money [to the Palestinians].

"Our message is loud and clear to those who take unfriendly positions against Arabs."

The US and European-led imposition of economic sanctions, along with an Israeli refusal to release revenues it collects on the Palestinians behalf, have severely damaged the Palestinian economy and have led to protests by civil servants who have gone unpaid for months.

Arab banks have not transferred funds to the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority amid concerns of incurring US-led penalties.

'Terrorist organisation'

The US and European Union list Hamas as a terrorist organisation and take steps against those who transfer funds to such groups.

Kuwait's foreign minister said his country would send $30 million to the Palestinians, and Bahrain said the Arab countries would begin contacting international financial institutions to get the money transferred.

"There will no longer be an international siege," Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister, said.

Mohammed Awad, secretary-general of the Palestinian cabinet, said at least $52 million would be ready for immediate transfer and would go to paying salaries.

Awad said: "Most banks follow their governments. They must remove the blockade."

Sanctions

It was not immediately clear if Arab banks would immediately begin transactions on Monday after the decision or if sanctions would be imposed if they did.

"Our message is loud and clear to those who take unfriendly positions against Arabs."

Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League
Arab foreign ministers also called for a peace conference to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "according to international resolutions and the principal of 'land for peace'."

The Arab League wants Hamas to endorse a 2002 initiative that calls for peace in exchange for land seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, said he was not aware of the conference proposal but he said Hamas could not be a party to talks with Israel unless it met the international community's stipulations.

"A multilateral conference doesn't make Hamas legitimate," Regev said. "What makes Hamas legitimate is accepting the international benchmarks."

Israeli offensive

The US, Europe and Israel demand that Hamas recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by existing agreements between Israel and Palestinians.

The Arab League ministers also decided to ask the UN General Assembly to hold a special session to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories.

The draft UN resolution would have condemned a recent Israeli offensive in Gaza that has killed more 50 people and also demanded that Israeli troops pull out of the territory.

The resolution, sponsored by the Gulf state of Qatar, also criticised the Israeli tank shelling of a home in Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in which seven children and four women were killed as they slept.

John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN, said the Arab-backed resolution was "biased against Israel and politically motivated".

The offensive was part of a larger military operation carried out by Israel in June after Palestinian fighters captured an Israeli soldier and killed two others in a cross-border raid.

Monday 13 November 2006, 14:59 Makka Time, 11:59 GMT

Shbeir is an academic with no previous political position

The two main Palestinian factions have agreed to name Mohammed Shbeir, a US-educated academic, as the prime minister in a unity government.

Shbeir, who has a PhD in microbiology from the University of West Virginia in the US, was president of the Islamic University in Gaza for 15 years until 2005 and has no previous political career.

The academic is believed to have close ties to Hamas, has maintained good relations with all the Palestinian factions, and frequently met the late Yasser Arafat.

Shbeir, originally from the town of Khan Younis in Gaza, lives in Gaza City with his six children and his wife, who serves as deputy to the minister of women's affairs.

Abbas agreed to the appointment after a meeting between officials from the ruling Hamas party and Fatah in Gaza.

'Favoured choice'

A presidential aide said: "Hamas proposed three names all of which were acceptable to president Abbas and Hamas indicated that their favoured choice was Mohammed Shbeir."

Civil servants held mass protests
over unpaid wages
Months of talks have failed to lead to the establishment of a unity government, but in recent days both sides said progress had been made, and Abbas said he hoped a government would be in place by the end of November.

The two sides hope that the unity government would be acceptable to the international community, which has refused to deal with the Hamas-led government until it renounces violence, recognises Israel and accepts existing peace deals.

Financial sanctions and Israel's withholding of revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinians have made it largely impossible for the government to pay its 165,000 civil servants, leading to widespread hardship and protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Jordan visit

Abbas is travelling to Jordan on Monday to update officials on efforts to form the unity government before heading to Cairo on a similar mission, an official said.

He is expected in to meet King Abdullah II on Tuesday to discuss "the latest developments on the Palestinian scene".

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said in an interview with the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds, that he was willing to talk to Hamas if it accepted the conditions laid down by the international community.

"If Hamas accepts the quartet conditions, I will sit down with them," he said.

Olmert noted that Israel once refused to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, considering it a terrorist organisation, but now talks to its representatives, including Abbas, its leader.

At least two Israelis have been seriously
wounded by the attacks

A second Qassam rocket strike has seriously wounded an Israeli security guard and a youth in Sderot.

Israeli medical sources said that several other residents of the town were slightly injured in the attack on Wednesday, hours after a woman was killed by rockets fired from Gaza.

Israel told the Palestinians they would "pay a heavy price".

The armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said it fired at least two salvoes at Sderot and claimed responsibility for the death.

It said the rocket attack was in response to Israeli shelling last week that killed 19 Palestinian civilians.

The Islamic Jihad group said it had also launched two rockets later in the day.

Sderot is a frequent target of Palestinian rocket squads because it lies just five kilometres from Gaza. Rockets also hit a nearby village but no one was wounded.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops had spotted an armed gunman in al-Ein camp near Nablus and opened fire.

Earlier, the Israeli air force also hit the homes of several senior Palestinian militants in Gaza, wounding at least one person.

On Wednesday, a wave of militant rocket fire from Gaza killed an Israeli woman in the Israeli town of Sderot and seriously wounded two men.

The dead Palestinian was identified as 25-year-old Muhammad Ahmedan. His relatives said he had been unarmed.

Phone warning

As they often do in Gaza, Israeli forces phoned the five houses beforehand to warn of the coming attacks.

The rocket fire will not end with one blow. We are making all efforts and a lot of people are risking their lives
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the militants' homes were hit because they were being used to store weapons and to hold "terrorist meetings".

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Palestinian militants would pay a heavy price for the attacks.

The first Israeli helicopters struck the Shathi refugee camp outside Gaza City at just before midnight on Wednesday, hitting the home of a prominent member of the Popular Resistance Committees.

Shortly afterwards, similar attacks hit the homes of senior Hamas militants in the Jabaliya refugee camp and in Rafah.

At least one person was wounded in the first attack, Palestinian officials said.

'No solution found'

Palestinian militant groups fired two rockets into southern Israel on Thursday morning, one of which hit a kibbutz building, but there were no casualties

Funeral of Fatima Slutsker
Sderot buried its dead, 57-year-old mother of two Fatima Slutsker

On Tuesday, militants from the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the town of Sderot. Two people were seriously injured in addition to the death of Fatima Slutsker, 57.

The Palestinians said they were retaliating for recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, including an artillery strike on Beit Hanoun last week that killed 19 civilians.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ruled out a major incursion to stop rocket fire, although he acknowledged it was more serious than usual.

"The rocket fire will not end with one blow. We are making all efforts and a lot of people are risking their lives. But the unequivocal way to stop it [the rocket fire] completely has yet to be found," he said.

'Attack foiled'

Separately, the Israeli army says a plan to carry out a suicide bombing in Jerusalem was foiled earlier this year.

The army said a member of a militant Palestinian group, the Popular Resistance Committees, was arrested by police in Jerusalem in July, carrying an explosives belt.

It said three other militants were subsequently arrested in the West Bank.

There is no independent conformation of this.