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Here is a timeline of events since a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip ended in December 2008.
The ceasefire had been eroded by violence from both sides since early November, when Israel killed several gunmen in air and ground raids, and Hamas fired rockets into southern Israel.
Dec. 19, 2008 - Ceasefire expires.
Dec. 24 - Gaza Palestinian militants fire rockets at Israel.
Dec. 27 - Israel launches air strikes on Gaza in response to the rocket and mortar fire, killing at least 229 Palestinians.
Dec. 28 - Israeli air strikes hit the Islamic University and target smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
Dec. 31 - Emergency UN Security Council session on Arab resolution calling for ceasefire adjourns without a vote.
Jan. 1, 2009 - Israel kills Nizar Rayyan, a hardline Hamas leader, in an air attack on his Gaza Strip home.
Jan. 3 - Israel launches a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, sending tanks and infantry into battle with Hamas.
Jan. 4 - Israelis cut the strip in half from the border fence to the Mediterranean. Troops and armour ring Gaza City.
Jan. 5 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a peace mission,
and US President George W. Bush, appeal for a ceasefire.
Jan. 6 - Israeli shelling kills 42 Palestinians at a UN school in
Jabalya refugee camp where civilians had taken shelter. Egypt,
backed by France and other European powers, propose an immediate
ceasefire.
Jan. 7 - Violence resumes after a three-hour Gaza truce. - Israel says it views "positively" talks with Cairo over a wider ceasefire plan promoted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Sarkozy.
Jan. 8 - Rockets fired from Lebanon strike northern Israel,
wounding two people.
- The UN Security Council votes for a resolution
calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but the US abstains,
citing Egyptian-mediated talks on a truce.
- The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which
distributes the majority of aid in Gaza, suspends its operations
after an Israeli tank shell kills an UNRWA driver in a
convoy.
Jan. 9 - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejects the UN
resolution as "unworkable" and, noting Palestinians fired rockets
at Israel, says the army will go on defending Israelis.
Jan. 10 - Hamas leader Meshaal accuses Israel of perpetrating a
"holocaust" in Gaza and says his group will not consider a
ceasefire until Israel ends its assault.
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets
Mubarak in Cairo. Egypt later says it will not accept foreign
troops on its side of the border with Gaza to stop arms
smuggling.
Jan. 11 - Israeli forces edge into the Gaza Strip's most populous
area, throwing army reservists into battle.
- Israel says stopping arms smuggling from Egypt
to the Gaza Strip should be done by Egyptian forces and rejects the
idea of an international force.
Jan. 12 - Israeli soldiers battle Hamas militants east and north of
the city of Gaza.
- Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister says
the attack on Gaza had "restored Israel's deterrence".
- The Palestinian death toll since Israel's
miltary assault began stands at 905, medical officials say. About
3,600 Palestinians have been wounded. The health minister in the
Hamas-run government, Bassem Naeem, says that 42 percent of those
killed are women and children. The Israeli toll is 13, 10 of whom
are soldiers killed in the campaign.
