The following is a timeline of events leading to the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip that began on December 27 with Israel's aerial bombardment of Hamas-linked compounds in the coastal sliver:

2008

June 19: An Egyptian mediated ceasefire begins between Hamas and Israel. The Palestinian movement agrees to stop firing rockets as Israel accepts to gradually ease its embargo on the Gaza Strip.

July 27: Israel kills Shihab al-Natsheh, a senior Hamas fighter, in his house in the West Bank city of al-Khalil.

August 2: Three Hamas police officers and six pro-Fatah gunmen are killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip, the worst of such since June 2007.

October 8: Israel prevents Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) from entering the embattled Gaza Strip.

November 5: Israel raids houses in the Hamas-controlled region and arrests seven Palestinians.

Israel attacks areas inside Gaza, killing at least six Palestinians. Ghassan el-Taramse, a nineteen-year-old Palestinian activist, is killed in an Israeli air raid in the northern parts of the coastal sliver.

Palestinians fire several dozen rockets and mortar shells at western Negev in Israel in retaliation. No casualties or property damage is caused, but three women are treated for shock.

November 8: Israel violates the ongoing truce as its tanks and bulldozers cross the southern border of the Gaza Strip.

November 14: Hamas fires a barrage of homemade rockets at the city of Ashkelon. Four rockets are also fired into western Negev after Israeli air strikes wounded two people in Gaza.

November 15: Israeli air strike kills two Palestinians in the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza.

November 18: Israeli tanks backed by a bulldozer and a military jeep roll half a kilometer into Gaza. The Israeli army claims the incursion is "a routine operation to uncover explosive devices near the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip."

November 20: An Israeli tank fires shells, killing a Palestinian fighter east of Gaza City.

November 23: The Israeli army wounds two Palestinian residents while shelling homes in various cities in the strip.

November 28: Israeli forces backed by tanks enter the southern parts of the coastal region and kill two Palestinians.

November 29: Projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip wound eight Israeli soldiers in an army base in the town of Nahal Uz.

December 02: The Israeli army launches air strikes into southern Gaza and kills at least two civilians and wounding four others.

December 17: Five Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip injure two Israelis in the southern town of Sderot.

December 18: A Palestinian man is killed in Jabaliya as Israeli aircraft target metal workshops in the towns of Jabaliya and Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military claims the targets are used to manufacture rockets.

December 19: The six-month truce officially ends.

December 20: Israeli launches air strikes on the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya, killing one Palestinian and wounding two others.

December 21: Palestinian fighters fire rockets into Sderot and Negev and one Israeli is wounded.

December 22: A twenty-four hour truce is declared between Israel and armed Palestinian factions at the request of Egyptian mediators.

December 23: The twenty-four hour truce expires.

Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian resistance fighters leave three members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades dead along the border fence in northern Gaza.

Six Qassam rockets are fired into western Negev. The rocket attacks do not hit any targets in Israel.

December 24: Gaza fighters fire two dozen mortar shells at three different targets inside Israel.

An Israeli air raid kills a Palestinian and wounds two others in southern Gaza.

December 27: Israeli F16 bombers and apache helicopters carry out at least 30 simultaneous raids on various targets across the Gaza strip. The operation kills at least 230 and wounds hundreds of Palestinians.

Hamas responds with rocket fire from Gaza and kills one Israeli in the southern town of Netivot.

December 28: Israel begins a fresh wave of air strikes. Israel deploys tanks and troops along the Gaza border. Tunnels in and out of Gaza are bombed.

A Hamas missile strikes near the largest city in the south of the occupied lands, the deepest reach into Israel to the date.

Global protests against the Israeli attacks begin.

Palestinian death toll rises to 296; 900 are injured.

December 29: The third day of attacks on the strip brings the death toll to 340. At least 1,400 Palestinians are wounded.

Muslim world announces day of mourning.

Two more Israelis are killed and one is injured.

December 30: Israeli air operations continue as Tel Aviv declares the area around Gaza a 'closed military zone'.

Israeli floats the idea that a ground invasion of Gaza is imminent.

Palestinian casualties rise to 360 dead and 1,500 injured.

December 31: Israel continues tunnel attacks and civilian casualties increase.

Hamas says Gaza will be victorious.

The UN and Arab League find no solution to end the crisis.

Palestinian death toll rises to 400 with 1,600 injured.

January 1: Israeli bombardments continue; first senior Hamas official dies in air attacks.

Israel denies a 48-hour request for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza by rejecting an EU truce.

Hamas calls for Palestinian protests; it rockets hit several positions.

417 Palestinians and 6 Israelis dead.

January 2: Curfew imposed on West Bank and foreigners are told to leave Gaza.

Top Israeli ministers discuss ground invasion into the Gaza Strip. The United Nations condemns Israel and describes situation in Gaza as "appalling".

Kadima, Israel's ruling party, losses ground in polls ahead of elections.

Death toll continues to rise.

January 3: A senior leader of the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas is killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza.

Hamas warns Israel not to "commit the stupidity" of taking its offensive to the next level. The group says its fighters have foiled an attempt by Israeli ground forces to cross the border into the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli cabinet approves a military ground incursion in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes bomb a bridge linking Gaza City to the rest of the coastal slither.

Hamas fires eight rockets into Israel, seven into the Western Negev and one into the Eshkol region.

Israeli warplanes raid several targets in Gaza and kill four people.

A Hamas rocket hits a four-story building in Ashdod -- Israel's second largest port - and lightly wounds four people.

An Israeli air raid on a mosque in the Gaza Strip kills at least 16 Palestinians.

Israeli tanks begin shelling areas inside the strip, causing a large explosion in Gaza City as well as a series of blasts stitching the nearby frontier with Israel.

Israeli tanks roll into Gaza.

A Palestinian rocket destroys a house in the Israeli city of Netivot.

Israel bans a Red Cross medical team from entering Gaza to treat injured residents.

Hamas says that nine Israeli soldiers have been killed and 25 wounded.

The United Nations Security Council calls for an emergency meeting.

January 4: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls for an immediate cessation of the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes bomb the coastal region, lighting up the sky hours before sunrise.

The United States blocks a UN Security Council bid to require an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli bombers hit the Hamas-run al-Aqsa radio station inside Gaza.

A Palestinian ambush allegedly kills five Israeli troops.

Hamas says its fighters have captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes with invading Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces surround the largest city in the Palestinian territories, Gaza City.

Clashes continue between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters in four spots in the north, around Gaza City, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya.

Gaza resistance fighters fire ten more rockets into Israeli cities, two targeted at western Negev and three hit Sderot city.

Israeli bombers target heavily populated areas inside the Gaza Strip, killing five Palestinian civilians and wounding 40 others.

Medics inside Gaza confirm that they have found traces of depleted uranium in some Palestinians wounded in the Israeli ground offensive.

Israel kills two senior Hamas officials, Hussam Hamdan and Muhammad Hilo, in an air strike on Khan Yunis.

Palestinian fighters fire at least 40 Qassam and Grad rockets into southern Israel.

Israeli President Shimon Peres rejects the possibility of a ceasefire.

Palestinians target an Israeli helicopter and allegedly destroy seven Israeli tanks inside the strip.

January 5: An Israeli tank shell kills five members of a family in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City.

Israeli troops and tanks divide Gaza City and northern areas of the strip from the rest of the coastal territory.

Hamas says it will attend an Egyptian mediated ceasefire meeting in Cairo.

Israeli air forces targets 30 positions in Gaza overnight, according to an army spokesperson.

Grad rockets target the Hatzor Air Base, near the Israeli town of Ashdod, the al-Aqsa TV channel reports. Israeli media outlets say Palestinian fighters fired at least four Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Monday morning.

Israeli ground forces enter Gaza City.

An Israeli attack on a house in the town of Beit Lahiyah in the north of the Gaza Strip kills three and injures at least 44 others.

Israeli forces shoot a mother and her four children in the Chujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City. All are killed.

Fighting between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces kills an Israeli soldier near Gaza City. Large explosions and heavy exchanges of fire rocks eastern neighborhoods of the city.

An Israeli army spokesperson says that the Israeli army has detained dozens of Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip.

January 6: Hamas claims it has hit seven Israeli tanks and killed ten Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli army says "friendly" tank fire kills three soldiers.

Major battles between the Palestinian resistance and Israeli troops begin inside Gaza City.

Amnesty International calls on the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israel over its operations in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli tanks enter the city of Khan Yunis, the largest city in southern Gaza.

Palestinian Grad rockets hit the three Israeli towns of Netivot, Ofakim and Eshkol.

Israeli tanks kill at least six Palestinian fighters in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah.

Hamas says Israeli air strikes target 29 houses in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian fighters say they have killed 4 other Israeli troops.

The Israeli army confirms the death of an Israeli paratroop officer during clashes in northern Gaza.

Israeli air strikes kill five people inside two UN-run schools in the Gaza Strip.

Israel arrests a correspondent of the al-Alam News Network for defying a ban imposed on covering the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip.

Israel says it has killed Ayman Siam, a Hamas artillery unit commander, in an aerial attack on Jabaliya, northern Gaza.

Hamas reveals a video showing "the remains of an Israeli drone shot down by Palestinian fighters" in the Gaza Strip.

At least 12 members of a family die in Israel's artillery barrage against the eastern Gazan neighborhood of al-Zeitoun.

At least 43 people are killed in another Israeli attack on a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip. The death toll for the attacks on the three UN schools amount to at least 48.

The Hamas military wing says one of its fighters has destroyed an Israeli army tank. The Palestinian is killed in the clash.

The Israeli military confirms that resistance fighters have killed an Israeli soldier and wounded 4 others in clashes north of Gaza City.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expels the Israeli ambassador to Caracas.

The EU embarks on a peace mission to Egypt and Israel to broker a truce in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

January 7: Israel kills one Palestinian and wounds three others as fierce clashes continue in the Gaza Strip.

UN Security Council members and Arab states also call on both Israel and Hamas to declare a ceasefire.

Denmark summons the Israeli ambassador to Copenhagen in protest at an attack on clinics run by a Danish charity in Gaza.

Clashes between resistance fighters and Israeli forces continue.

Four Qassam rockets hit near the Israeli port of Ashdod and an open area in the western Negev's Eshkol Regional Council region. An additional rocket is fired into the city of al-Majdal.

Israeli tanks withdraw from the southern the Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

The Israeli military halts attacks in parts of Gaza for a daily three-hour period. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) denounces the lull as not enough for humanitarian aid to be distributed among Palestinian refugees.

Hamas says it will stop firing rockets into Israel during the period Tel Aviv suspends its attacks to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

Two Palestinians are killed in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun, after Israel's "humanitarian respite" ends.

The military wing of Hamas says the resistance fighters have destroyed an Israeli Merkava 4 tank in Gaza City fighting.

Israel's security cabinet approves expanding a ground offensive against the Gaza Strip to push deeper into populated areas.

A Palestinian Red Crescent worker dies and two others are wounded in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes commence the shelling of the populated border region of Rafah.

Israel kills five members of a family in an air raid in the northern Gazan town of Jabaliya.

Palestinians fire at least 25 rockets into southern Israel. Nine people are treated for shock, but no other casualties are reported.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warns that "all possibilities" are open against Israel.

January 8: The UN Security Council seeks a non-binding resolution against Israel. Resolution 1860 would call for an immediate and durable ceasefire in Gaza leading to a "full withdrawal" of Israeli troops.

UNRWA suspends operations in Gaza after a UN-flagged convoy is hit by Israeli tanks. One person is killed in the attack.

Several rockets fly from Lebanon into northern Israel, wounding two people. Hamas denies any involvement.

Tel Aviv fires five rockets into Lebanon in retaliation.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it has attacked an Israeli naval ship with mortars on the northern coast of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian fighters fire half a dozen homemade rockets into southern Israel.

The Red Cross finds four emaciated children in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City lying beside their dead mothers in a house containing 12 bodies. Israeli soldiers order the rescue team to leave the area.

Hamas anti-tank missiles kill an Israeli army officer and wounds one more in the former Neztarim settlement in the Gaza Strip.

New Israeli raids on the impoverished enclave kills 20 people, many of whom were women and children.

Several mortar shells are fired at the Eshkol region in the western Negev, wounding four Israeli soldiers. Five more people are treated for shock.

Israeli air strikes target civilian areas in the center of Gaza City.

Hamas says it has targeted a group of Israeli soldiers east of the Tofah district of Gaza City. Another Israeli soldier was targeted by Palestinian snipers in the city of Jabaliya north of Gaza City.

The Israeli military says Palestinian fighters have killed three Israeli soldiers and wounded several more in clashes and rocket attacks on Israel.

January 9: Early hour clashes between resistance fighters and Israeli forces leave two women, a Moroccan and a Russian killed. The Moroccan woman is killed with two members of her family in Gaza City.

15 mosques are reduced to rubbles in nighttime bombardment of Gaza.

The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1860 and calls for an immediate and durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The United States abstained from voting on the ceasefire resolution.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni responds that Tel Aviv will not abide by the resolution.

Hamas says its Grad rockets have hit the Tel Nof Israeli airbase near Tel Aviv. The base is believed to be home to nuclear arms.

The UN says Israeli forces have moved around 110 Palestinians into a house and shell it repeatedly 24 hours later, killing about 30 people.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness says Israel attempted to justify its attack on a UN school by releasing footage of Palestinians firing from the school. He dismisses the tape as irrelevant as it dates back to 2007.

Gunness adds that when confronted, Tel Aviv admitted that its shelling of the UN school, which killed dozens of Gazan civilians, was "unprovoked".

The International Committee of the Red Cross limits its operations in the Gaza Strip after Israeli forces open fire on one its vehicles.

Israeli helicopters pound Gaza.

Israel violates its self-declared three-hour lull by attacking the cities of Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya in the north and the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Tel Aviv will not take Resolution 1860 into consideration.

Hamas fighters fire rockets into Israeli cities of Kerem Shalom and Ashdod. No casualties are reported.

Israel bombs a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

Israel's security cabinet decides to continue the offensive in Gaza.

January 10: Israeli forces attempt to enter Gaza City through Sofa and Kissufim. Palestinian fighters clash with the invading troops.

The Israeli military says it had carried out more than 70 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on the previous day.

Egypt hosts separate talks with Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas and a Hamas delegation in Cairo.

Resistance fighters, including Hamas fire at least seven rockets into Israel, lightly wounding two people.

Israel kills eight members of the same Palestinian family, including a 12-year-old child, in the northern town of Jabaliya.

The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) resumes relief operations inside the besieged sliver of land.

Hamas says it killed at least 12 Israeli military forces in fresh clashes with the Israeli army.

Palestinian fighters fire eight rockets into Israel, slightly injuring two people. Ten others are treated for shock.

The Israeli air force drops flyers on the Gaza Strip, warning the residents of a "new phase of attacks" on the beleaguered territory.

The Israeli air force pounds the populated border region of Rafah in Gaza.

Israel once again violates the three-hour truce by shelling the coastal strip.

Hamas says it has targeted an Israeli military base located some 50 kilometers from the Gaza Strip.

A rocket launched by Palestinian fighters form the Gaza Strip injures at least 14 people in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.

The Israeli military says it has killed senior Hamas fighter Amir Mansi in Gaza City.

Israeli white phosphorous shells kill three and injure 60 others in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

January 11: Israeli white phosphorous shells kill three and injure 60 others, medics say.

Hamas says it has destroyed an Israeli tank north of Gaza City.

Israeli forces trying to enter Gaza City are met with strong opposition from resistance fighters, including Hamas.

Hamas-fired rockets hit Netivot, Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod. The southern Israeli city of Beersheba is also hit by two Grad rockets.

An Israeli attack on northern areas in the Gaza Strip, leaves at least seven civilians dead.

Israeli forces retreat from the Tal al-Halwa neighborhood south of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Grad-type rockets, fired from the Gaza Strip, strike the Israeli Palmachim Air base, ten kilometers south of the Tel Aviv area.

Hamas says its fighters have targeted an Israeli aircraft in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli naval forces fire at residential areas of the western Gaza Strip before the end of a daily three-hour lull in the region.

Israeli military sources say troops along the northern border with Syria have come under fire from the Syrian side of the border.

Israeli forces hit the Hamas ministry of culture in the Gaza Strip. Charity groups say Israeli aircrafts bombed and destroyed a clinic in the Gaza Strip minutes afterwards.

Israeli airstrikes wound two Egyptian policemen and two children near the northern Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip.

Israel sends more reservists into the beleaguered Gaza Strip.

Israel fails to capture Gaza City despite sending thousands of reserve soldiers to invade the city.

A deep rift surfaces between Israeli leaders Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert over ending the military operations in the Gaza Strip.

January 12: At least five Palestinian civilians die in separate Israeli attacks in the north and east of the impoverished Gaza City. Israeli gunboats also fire on southern parts of the city.

Israel resumes air strikes on the Gaza Strip using the controversial white phosphorus bombs. Resistance fighters prevent Israeli forces from entering Gaza City.

Egypt allows dozens of doctors and medical supplies to pass the Rafah border and enter the Gaza Strip.

Hamas fighters fire at least 17 rockets at Sderot, Be'er Sheva, Ashkelon, Kiryat Gat. The rocket attacks caused no casualties.

Israeli warplanes bomb another mosque in the southern Gaza Strip.

The UN Human Rights Council condemns Israel for 'grave' human rights violations against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas military wing says resistance snipers have targeted an Israeli soldier near Gaza City.

Israel sets two conditions for ending the war on Gaza -- to end the rocket fire and stop Hamas rearmament.

Israel targets the residence of senior Hamas military commander Ahmad Jabari in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Sajaiyeh. Jabari was not at his house at the time of attack.

Israel jails a reservist after refusing to fight in Gaza. He cites reluctance to kill civilians as his reason.

Four more Israeli soldiers become wounded in Gaza.

MT/MD/AA