Gaza - Fierce clashes erupted Monday night in eastern and northern Gaza City between Palestinian militants and Israel soldiers, witnesses said.

Witnesses said they heard heavy and intensive tank shelling in the Tufah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, and added that Israeli troops and militants were also engaged in gun battles.

Gaza resident Mohamed al-Aklouk said dozens of tanks shells were fired at eastern and northern Gaza City within less than 30 minutes, and several houses were destroyed in the area.

New Delhi, Jan 5 : Students Federation of India (SFI), students'' wing of Communist Party of India (Marxist), staged protest here today against Israeli offensive in Gaza and to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

The SFI protestors blamed the United States for the Israeli attack and accused United Progressive Alliance government for not strongly condemning the attacks on Gaza.

Cairo  - A spokesman for the militant Islamist movement Hamas called Sunday for an emergency meeting to present a united Palestinian front in the face of the Israeli ground offensive launched against the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening.

Mohammed Nazal, a spokesman for Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said on Arabic satellite channel al-Arabiya that "all national powers" should come together to meet, to decide on a united course of action, in the face of the Israeli offensive.

Tel Aviv/Gaza City  - Israeli ground troops began moving into the north and east of the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening, Palestinian witnesses said.

Washington - US President George W Bush spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday over efforts to achieve "a sustainable ceasefire" to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the White House said.

Bush also spoke with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

"They agreed that for any ceasefire to be effective, it must be respected, particularly by Hamas," Johndroe said in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is vacationing.

Cairo - Hamas was preventing casualties from entering Egypt for treatment, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Sunday, a day after Gaza was pounded in Israeli airstrikes that killed have some 270 people.

Egypt had opened its Rafah border and was awaiting for Hamas' to let the casualties into Egypt, Abul Gheit said. Hundreds of Gazans have been wounded in Israel airstrikes and clashes since Saturday.

Abul Gheit's statements came during a press conference with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

There was no independent confirmation that Hamas has blocked the border crossing as no immediate comment from the Islamic movement was available.