Tel Aviv  -

Gaza City  - Hamas admitted Friday that its own militants were behind a huge explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya that had killed eight Palestinians, including a four-month-old baby.

Gaza City  - Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip Thursday morning, Palestinian medical officials and an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

Gaza - An 8-year-old Palestinian girl was killed early Wednesday in an Israeli shelling in southern Gaza Strip, hospital sources and witnesses said.

Three other people from the same family of the girl, Hadeel al-Summiri, were also injured when a tank shell landed on their house in al-Qarara village in the east of Khan Younis city.

According to residents, Israeli tanks rolled into the area, fired a shell that landed on the house and caused great damage, killing the girl.

Israeli soldiers refused to allow ambulances to enter the area, which lies by the security fence which separates between Israel and Gaza, the residents said.

Hospital officials said the body of the girl was cut into pieces.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert was set to convene his security cabinet Wednesday to discuss whether to accept a truce with Gaza Strip militants, or whether to press ahead with military action to end rocket fire on southern Israel.

The issue was discussed Tuesday at consultations Olmert held with Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

No details emerged from that meeting, but Israeli media reports Wednesday morning said that while Olmert and Livni wanted to give the go-ahead for a military offensives in the enclave, Barak preferred to give Egypt more time to mediate a truce.

Cairo's mediation has as yet to achieve results.

Gaza - A Pale