Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israel considered partially reopening its border crossings with Gaza after a reduction in rocket attacks from the strip over the past few days, Israel Radio reported Monday.

The border crossings have been all but completely shut for 20 days amid a deteriorating five-month-old truce, with only one convoy of 33 trucks with essential humanitarian supplies entering the strip one week ago.

Israeli defence officials were scheduled to hold consultations later Monday to debate easing the blockade if no new rockets landed in Israel.

Some 44 trucks with basic goods could enter through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossings with the southern Gaza Strip Monday.

Tel Aviv/Gaza City  - Palestinian factions have agreed to halt rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and to renew their commitment to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel in exchange for opening crossing points into the strip, a Hamas spokesman said on Sunday.

Ayman Taha, the spokesman, said the agreement was reached Sunday morning and the factions would wait to see when Israel will reopen the commercial crossings into Gaza.

The meeting was held after Egypt, which sponsors the ceasefire, conveyed an Israeli message to Hamas that the Jewish state will call off recent restrictions if the armed Palestinian groups halted rocket attacks against Israeli border towns.

Tel Aviv/Gaza City  - Israel will keep the borders into the Gaza Strip closed after resumed rocket fire by Palestinian militants late Saturday toward southern Israeli towns, Israeli media reported.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak made the decision to keep all border crossings into Gaza closed, following the latest launches of three home-made Kassam rockets by militants toward two towns in southern Israel. There were no casualties.

An Israeli attack by a ground-fired missile in retaliation wounded two Palestinians militants who were allegedly trying to fire additional rockets, the Palestinian news agency Maan reported.

Gaza - Hamas Saturday accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of supporting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in a bid to weaken the Islamic movement which controls the territory.

"The repeated calls by some of the PA officials that electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza should be cut reflect an intention to weaken Hamas movement," said Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman.

Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip on November 4 after an Egyptian- brokered ceasefire was rocked by a series of Israeli military operations and ensuing rocket fire from the territory by the armed Palestinian groups.

Owing to lack of fuel, the only power plant in the Strip has been shut down, threatening vital service sectors.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reiterated Friday a request to Israel to allow the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.

A UN spokeswoman said Ban "underscores the importance of having Israel urgently permit the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza, and regrets that his calls have not yet been heeded."

The UN said living conditions in the Hamas-held Palestinian enclave have deteriorated because of the continued closure of major crossing points by Israel.