Gaza City - The radical Hamas movement said Saturday it would not reduce its demand for the release of at least 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier.

"Hamas has demanded the release of at least 1,000 prisoners who are serving long-term sentences," said Osama al-Muzini, a Hamas leader based in the Gaza Strip.

Last week, an Israeli ministerial committee agreed to release 450 prisoners in the first phase of the swap once Corporal Gilad Shalit is handed over to Egyptian mediators.

Jerusalem  - The Palestinian who drove his car into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem late Monday, injuring 19 people, did not carry out a premeditated attack, his family said Tuesday.

The Palestinian was identified Tuesday as Qassem Mughrabi, 19, from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabel Mukhaber.

Witnesses and Israeli police said he deliberately drove a black BMW into the soldiers as they were waiting to cross the road near the Old City, on the old border between East and West Jerusalem.

An officer who was with the soldiers and a civilian shot dead the perpetrator.

Beirut  - An explosion Tuesday ripped through the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el Hilweh in southern Lebanon, causing casualties, Palestinian sources said.

Beirut  - Songs by Iraqi and Palestinian refugee rappers are becoming one of the hottest selling items in Beirut's music stores, as war-weary Lebanese fans buy up their albums in solidarity with artists expressing their hardship in exile.

A Palestinian rap group calling themselves I-Voice (Invincible Voice), and an Iraqi band known as UTN1, (Unknown To No One) are among a number of bands trying to inspire young people to keep hope despite the seemingly endless crises in the Middle East.

Gaza- The Islamic movement Hamas said Saturday it wants the formation of a national unity government to settle the political crisis which has divided Palestinians.

"Hamas favours a national coalition that can defend the Palestinian people and their rights," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoom in Gaza.

Barhoom's remarks indicate Hamas is opposed to the idea of a government made up of technocrats that do not include members of the two largest Palestinian groups -
Hamas and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Gaza City - Hamas police in the Gaza Strip battled it out with one of the salient's most powerful clans Tuesday, leaving at least 11 people, a baby infant among them, dead, in the worst internecine violence in the salient in more than a month.

Dozens of people were also injured in the fighting, which saw both sides use rocket-propelled grenades and semi-automatic weapons.

The clashes erupted when Hamas police forces raided a neighbourhood in southern Gaza City before dawn, seeking to arrest members of a powerful local Dughmush clan.