Amman - The Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Karen AbuZayd, on Wednesday urged donor countries to contribute "significant additional pledges" to enable the agency to come to grips with "a grave and imminent financial crisis".

AbuZayd made the appeal during the concluding session of a two-day meeting in Amman that brought together donors and host governments, NGOs and other UNRWA stakeholders.

Gaza City - Hamas threatened Tuesday to call off a five-month-old Gaza truce, after Israel kept up its near-total closure of the strip for the 14th consecutive day in response to ongoing rocket attacks.

A spokesman for the radical Islamist movement that rules Gaza called on all Palestinian militant factions active in Gaza to meet and reach a joint decision on whether to continue with the truce or break it off.

Jerusalem  - Israel will free 250 Palestinian prisoners in advance of a Muslim holiday next month, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when the two met in Jerusalem Monday afternoon.

The two held talks amid a collapsing truce between Israel and the Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip. The truce has been unraveling since last week, as Palestinians fire rockets at southern Israel and Israel targets militants.

Abbas said after his talks with Olmert that Gaza had figured "extensively" in the meeting. He called on the Palestinian factions in the salient to stop firing the "useless" missiles, a call he has made previously, but without success.

Jerusalem - Israel plans to release some 250 Palestinian militants from Israeli pr

Gaza City - An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip Saturday morning, witnesses said.

They said a reconnaissance drone fired a rocket at a group of five gunmen who gathered near the border town of Beit Hanoun.

Medical sources said that a man's body was brought to Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabaliya and another badly wounded man died soon after arrival. A third one was moderately hurt.

Gaza City - The Israeli army has denied claims by witnesses claimed that it attacked and killed two Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip Saturday morning.

The witnesses claimed a reconnaissance drone had fired a rocket at a group of five gunmen who gathered near the border town of Beit Hanoun.

Others said a rocket the group was about to fire into Israel exploded prematurely.

Medical sources said that a man's body was brought to Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabaliya and another badly wounded man died soon after arrival. A third one was moderately hurt.