Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was scheduled to visit Cairo Thursday for talks on the escalating violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip.

Livni's trip comes as the Israeli inner, or security cabinet, gave the military the green light Wednesday to launch a series of operations against Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and which Israel sees as bearing ultimate responsibility for the rocket fire directed against the Jewish state.

Beirut  - During a visit to Lebanon Wednesday, the radical Palestinian Hamas movement expressed its gratitude to the Lebanese people and Arab countries who are working on sending aid ships to the Gaza Strip to break a siege imposed on the region by Israel.

"We thank all our brothers in Lebanon and other countries who are working on easing the Zionist oppression of our Palestinian people," Hamas spokesman Ousama Hamadan said.

Tel Aviv/Gaza  - Israel cancelled an earlier decision to open its border crossings with Gaza to vital humanitarian supplies Wednesday after new, massive rocket fire from the strip.

Tel Aviv  - Israel has agreed to partially open the crossing points into the Gaza Strip, to allow aid convoys to enter the salient, Israeli media reported Wednesday morning.

The crossing points have been shut due to ongoing rocket fire on southern Israel from the enclave, following the end Friday morning of a truce between Israel and the Palestinian Gaza militant groups.

According to the Israeli Haaretz daily, the convoy Wednesday will include five trucks from Egypt, which requested Israel open the Kerem Shalom crossing to let the convoy pass, and 30 from the West Bank containing goods supplied by international organizations.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday ensured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Russia's continued support for the Palestinians in the Middle East.

The number of problems has definitely not grown less," said Medvedev as he received Abbas for an official meeting at the Kremlin, reported the Interfax news service.

Amman - A Jordanian plan to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip has been delayed until January so that it does not conflict with the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan's largest political party, had planned to send the ship on Thursday, which is Christmas Day, in an attempt at "breaking the siege" Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip.

However, European lawmakers and other activists who agreed to be on board the ship when it sails from the Red Sea port of Aqaba asked to be given time "to celebrate Christmas and New Year."