Gaza City  - Israeli helicopter gunships killed two Palestinian militants and wounded two others during an exchange of fire in the central Gaza Strip, health officials and witnesses said..

The bodies of two fighters were brought to central Gaza's al-Aqsa hospital, while the two wounded were also evacuated in moderate condition, Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein said.

Jerusalem  - Israel's outgoing cabinet voted Sunday to accept recommendations to worsen conditions for Hamas members in Israeli jails, in an effort to pressure the Islamist organization over the release of an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since June 2006.

The sanctions, to go into effect in the near future, include limiting family visits and revoking the opportunity for prisoners to take high school matriculation exams or study at the open university.

Access to radio and television will also be limited.

Gaza  - A leader of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on Saturday said inter-Palestinian unity and reconciliation talks will resume on Tuesday.

"The national dialogue will resume in Cairo on Tuesday," said Nabil Shaath, a Fatah representative to the talks.

"The first day will be left for unofficial discussions between the Egyptian officials and the leaders of the factions," he added.

Tel Aviv  - More than two months after its 22-day offensive in Gaza, Israel and the Palestinians continued Friday to argue over the total number of Palestinian deaths and over civilians killed in the war.

The Israeli military overnight published its own casualty figures of the offensive, saying at least 60 per cent of the total Palestinian dead were militants.

In a statement sent to the media it said that 1,166 Palestinians died in the offensive, adding it had collected their names and that 709 of them were militants.

Washington/Tel Aviv  - Israel carried out an airstrike in Sudan in January that killed 39 people, hitting a 17-truck convoy transporting arms earmarked for Gaza, the American network CBS reported Thursday.

A government minister in Sudan was accusing the United States Air Force of being behind the airstrike.

However, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported he had been told that Israeli aircraft carried out the attack. He said this was the "semi-official American version" of the event.

The Israeli military issued a statement, saying "Israel does not comment on these kind of publications."

Beirut  - Thousands of Palestinians mourned on Wednesday Kamal Medhat, the Palestine Liberation Organisation official who was killed in a southern-Lebanon car bombing on Monday.

Followers of rival Palestinian factions from Fatah and Hamas participated in the mass funeral of Kamal Medhat, the PLO's number two in Lebanon, who was killed Monday in a roadside bombing outside the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon along with three of his bodyguards.