Gaza City  - At least 11 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday in a fresh outbreak of violent internecine clashes in the Gaza Strip, the worst in more than a month, security officials said.

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

One Hamas policeman and at least four members of the Dughmush family - three gunmen and a baby girl - were among the dead. Dozens were also injured in the clashes, in which both sides used rocket- propelled grenades and semi-automatic guns.

Gaza City - At least 11 Palestinians were killed in another outbreak of violent internecine clashes in the Gaza Strip, the worst in more than a month, security officials said Tuesday.

The clashes took place in southern Gaza City's al-Sabra neighbourhood, between forces from the radical Islamic Hamas movement ruling the strip and a powerful local clan, the Dughmush.

At least one Hamas policeman and four members of the Dughmush family, including an infant, were among the dead, the security officials said.

A statement by the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry said the police forces killed three "wanted criminals" who refused to surrender during an attempt to arrest them.

Beirut - One person was killed when heavy clashes erupted Monday between rival Palestinian factions in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Lebanese and Palestinian sources said.

They said the clashes were between members of the mainstream Fatah movement and members of a fundamentalist group called Jund al Sham, one of whose members was killed.

The militants exchanged machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades and people were seen fleeing the streets.

Gaza - Egypt has drawn up a plan to end the internal Palestinian crisis and will put it forward after obtaining acceptance from the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, sources said Saturday.

Egypt came up the plan after rounds of bilateral talks with representatives of the different Palestinian factions. Later this month, the Egyptian officials will meet with the leaders of Hamas and Fatah separately to get their acceptance.

The Palestinian crisis escalated in June last year when Hamas routed security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, ousted his Fatah movement and took over control of the Gaza Strip, effectively separating it from the West Bank where Abbas has consolidated his rule.

Tel Aviv - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he doubted that any peace agreement could be reached by the end of 2008, saying in remarks published Friday that none of the six core issues in the conflict with Israel have been resolved.

"We presented our ideas and demands regarding the six issues but have not received any answer from the Israeli side," Abbas told the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper on the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo interim peace accords by late Israeli and Palestinian leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.

Ramallah  - Despite Israeli denials, a United States official confirmed Thursday that Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to negotiate the future of Jerusalem.

US Consul General in Jerusalem Jake Walles said the parties are negotiating the establishment of a Palestinian state on the basis of the borders that existed before the
1967 Arab-Israeli war, in which Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.