Timeline: Gaza crisis

More than 900 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its assault on December 27 [AFP] June 19: An Egyptian-brokered six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas comes into force. November 5: Israel closes all of its crossings with Gaza. December 14: Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal announces the six-month ceasefire with Israel will not be extended. December 19: Six-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel officially expires. December 21: Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, says that her primary goal if she wins Israeli elections, will be to overthrow Hamas. December 27: Israel begins assault on Gaza, codenamed "Operation Cast Lead", by launching air raids that kill more than 225 Palestinians. One Israeli is killed and six others wounded in missile attacks by Palestinian fighters. December 28: Israeli aircraft bomb the Islamic University in Gaza City and the length of the Gaza-Egypt border, taking out more than 40 tunnels used to smuggle vital goods to the strip. Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armoured forces mass on the border of the territory, and the army is given approval to call up reservists to bolster its fighting strength. December 29: Israeli air strikes hit the interior ministry in Gaza City as Israel declares a "closed military zone" around the Gaza strip. December 30: Rockets fired from Palestinian positions kill three Israelis, taking the death toll from Palestinian rocket attacks to four since the beginning of the Israeli offensive. The European Union calls for "an unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action". December 31: Members of the UN Security Council end an emergency meeting on the crisis after failing to agree on the wording of a draft resolution. January 1: Hamas official Nizar Rayyan is killed along with 14 members of his family in an Israeli raid. January 2: Egypt begins talks with Hamas over a way to end the conflict. Around 15,000 Palestinians have fled the fighting [AFP] January 3: As Israel begins its ground offensive in Gaza, at least 11 Palestinians, including one child, are killed after Israeli forces strike a mosque in the town of Beit Lahiya. January 4: Israeli forces cut Gaza in half and ring Gaza City itself as an Israeli soldier is killed in the ongoing offensive. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, pledges an additional $4.2 million of emergency aid for Gaza and calls on Israel to respect international law. An Israeli air strike hits two ambulances in Gaza, killing four paramedics. January 5: Air and naval bombardments kill 45 Palestinians. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, holds talks with Hosni Mubarak, his Egyptian counterpart, to push for a truce deal. January 6: An Israeli strike on a UN school in the northern town of Jabaliya kills 43 Palestinians and injures at least 100 who had taken refuge inside the school. Israeli strikes hit two other schools, killing two in the southern town of Khan Younis and three in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. January 7: 11 Palestinians are killed by air strikes and shelling in Gaza City and in the north of the Strip. Violence continues after Israel temporarily halts attacks in Gaza City for three hours to provide a "humanitarian respite." The Israeli military drops leaflets warning thousands of people in the Rafah zone on the Egyptian border to leave their houses or face air strikes. January 8: The UN’s refugee organisation in Gaza suspends all aid deliveries after an Israeli tank attacks a UN convoy, killing one Palestinian driver and injuring two other people. Israeli bulldozers cross into Gaza and destroy a number of houses. At least three rockets fired from Lebanon hit the northern Isreali town of Nahariya. The UN Security Council passes resolution, with 14 votes in favour and only the US abstaining, that "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza". January 9: Israeli attacks continue in Gaza soon after passing of UN resolution, with a series of explosions and gunfire heard. Six Palestinians reportedly killed in an air strike in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, raising the Palestinian death toll in Gaza to around 770, including more than 200 children, since the Israeli offensive began. January 10: Israel drops leaflets on Gaza City warning of a "new phase" in its two-week-old offensive. Eight family members are killed by an Israeli tank shell in Jabaliya, raising the Palestinian death toll in Gaza to 831 people. Khalid Meshaal, the exiled political leader of Hamas, says that Israel must halt the Gaza offensive and lift the blockade before Hamas agrees to a ceasefire deal. January 11: Israel is accused of firing white phosporous bombs on densely-populated Gaza in violation of international law. Israel reports to the UN that troops in the occupied Golan Heights came under small arms fire from Syria, but there were no injuries. Israel began sending reservists into the Gaza Strip as the military offensive continued unabated for the 16th consecutive day.