Gaza City - A Libyan ship set sail to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, carrying aid to the residents of the besieged enclave, a Palestinian official said.

Jamal al-Khodary, the head of the Popular Committee against the Siege on Gaza, said the ship set out on its voyage from the port city of Zuwarah on the Mediterranean Sea with 3,000 tons of medical supplies and humanitarian aid on board.

"The aid is donated by the Libyan state and its people," al- Khodary told reporters in Gaza, adding the voyage was one of a series of Arab attempts to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israel considered partially reopening its border crossings with Gaza after a reduction in rocket attacks from the strip over the past few days, Israel Radio reported Monday.

The border crossings have been all but completely shut for 20 days amid a deteriorating five-month-old truce, with only one convoy of 33 trucks with essential humanitarian supplies entering the strip one week ago.

Israeli defence officials were scheduled to hold consultations later Monday to debate easing the blockade if no new rockets landed in Israel.

Some 44 trucks with basic goods could enter through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossings with the southern Gaza Strip Monday.

Gaza - Hamas Saturday accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of supporting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in a bid to weaken the Islamic movement which controls the territory.

"The repeated calls by some of the PA officials that electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza should be cut reflect an intention to weaken Hamas movement," said Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman.

Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip on November 4 after an Egyptian- brokered ceasefire was rocked by a series of Israeli military operations and ensuing rocket fire from the territory by the armed Palestinian groups.

Owing to lack of fuel, the only power plant in the Strip has been shut down, threatening vital service sectors.

Gaza/Tel Aviv - Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, said Friday his movement remained interested in its informal truce with Israel, which had held for nearly five months, but has been jeopardized by renewed violence over the past two weeks and more.

Jerusalem - Major international media organizations protested against Israel Thursday because it has prevented journalists from entering the Gaza Strip for nearly two weeks now.

The media organizations sent a letter to caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying they were "gravely concerned" about the denial of access to the Gaza Strip to foreign journalists, which they called "unprecedented."

Gaza City - A Hamas militant was killed Thursday morning when a bomb he had been attempting to plant near the Gaza Strip border with Israel exploded prematurely, witnesses said.

Medical officials said the body of Mohammed al-Ar'ir, 19, was brought to Gaza City's Shifa hospital, with apparent shrapnel wounds in most of his body, at 7:45 am (0445 GMT).

A statement issued by Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said one of its fighters was "martyred while on a mission east of Gaza City." It did not elaborate.