Six months of rising tensions

Jan. 25 - Islamic militant group Hamas defeats Fatah movement of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in first Palestinian parliamentary election in a decade.

Jan. 30 - Hamas rejects a call from the Middle East Quartet to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

Feb. 19 - Israel halts its monthly transfer of millions of dollars to the PA ahead of the formation of a Hamas-led cabinet.

March 29 - Mr Abbas swears in Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his government.

April 10 - The EU severs political contacts.

- Hamas says it considers Israel's severing of contacts with the new Palestinian government "a declaration of war".

June 9 - Hamas armed wing calls off 16-month-old truce after seven family members are killed on a Gaza beach during a day of Israeli shelling. Israel denies responsibility for the deaths.

June 25 - Gaza militants launch deadly raid into Israel, killing two soldiers and capturing Corporal Gilad Shalit. Three days later Israel pushes into Gaza.

June 29 - Israeli troops in the West Bank detain a third of the Palestinian cabinet and nearly two dozen Hamas lawmakers.

July 3 - Israeli forces move into northern Gaza. Three days later the offensive is expanded after a rocket fired by Hamas hits the Israeli city of Ashkelon for the first time.

July 8 - Haniyeh calls for ceasefire with Israel, which says militants must first free the soldier and halt rocket attacks.

July 12 - Hizbollah guerillas capture two Israeli soldiers and kill up to eight around the Lebanese border. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calls it an "act of war" by Lebanon.

- Israel broadens Gaza offensive and cuts the strip in two. July 13 - Israeli aircraft bomb runways at Beirut's Rafik al-Hariri International Airport. Israel's navy blockades Lebanese ports.

July 14 - Israeli warplanes blast the main Beirut-Damascus highway, tightening an air, sea and land blockade of Lebanon.

July 15 - Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora demands an immediate UN-backed ceasefire, denouncing Israel for turning his country into a "disaster zone". He appeals for foreign aid.

- An Israeli missile in southern Lebanon, kills 20, including 15 children, the deadliest attack of the campaign.

July 16 - Rockets fired by Hizbollah kill eight in the Israeli city of Haifa bringing to 12 the number of Israelis killed.

- Israel attacks Beirut's Shi'ite southern suburbs. 111 people in Lebanon have been killed in the five-day assault.

- Syria vows a "harsh and direct" response if it is attacked by Israel.