Egypt News

Dec. 14 - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal says the group will not renew a six-month-old truce with Israel.

Dec. 18 - Hamas declares the end of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which expires the next day with a surge of cross-border fighting.

Dec. 24 - Gaza Palestinian militants ratchet up rocket fire towards Israel.

Dec. 27 - Israel launches massive air strikes on Gaza in response to the intensified rocket and mortar fire, killing at least 229 Palestinians.

Dec. 28 - Israeli air strikes hit a building at the Islamic University and target some 40 smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip that provide a lifeline to the outside world.

Dec. 29 - Israel bombs the Hamas-run Interior Ministry and declares areas around the Gaza Strip a "closed military zone". Palestinian militants fire rockets deeper into southern Israel.

Dec. 30 - Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum urges Palestinian groups to respond using "all available means" against Israel. Israel says its attacks herald "long weeks of military action".

Dec. 31 - Emergency session of U.N. Security Council to consider resolution drafted by Arab countries calling for immediate ceasefire adjourns without a vote.

Jan. 1 - Israel kills Nizar Rayyan, a hardline Hamas leader, in an air attack on his Gaza Strip home.

Jan. 2 - Palestinian official says that Egypt began exploratory talks with Hamas to halt the bloodshed.

Jan. 3 - Israel launches ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, sending tanks and infantry into battle with Hamas fighters. Israel says calls up tens of thousands of reservists.

Jan. 4 - Israelis cut the strip in half from the border fence to the Mediterranean. Troops and armour ring Gaza City. Israel rejects possibility of a ceasefire at this stage.

Jan. 5 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a peace mission to the Middle East, and US President George W. Bush, in his final weeks in office, both appeal for a ceasefire.

Jan. 6 - Ground offensive widens. Total deaths recorded by Palestinian medics reach 588. Nine Israelis, including three civilians hit in rocket attacks, have been killed.

-- Israel says any ceasefire is conditional on preventing Hamas from rearming.

-- Sarkozy meets Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus for talks.

-- At least five rockets fired from the Gaza Strip land in Israel.

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