Gaza City  - An Israeli airstrike

Jerusalem  - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will travel to Cairo Thursday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on the escalating violence between Israel and Palestinian Gazan militant organizations following the end of a six-month truce Friday.

The talks are at Mubarak's invitation, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday night. The statement said that while in the Egyptian capital, Livni is also expected to hold other meetings. It gave no further details.

Hebron, West Bank  - Days after Israeli authorities evicted Jewish settlers from a disputed house in Hebron, the dust has settled and a tense calm has returned to the divided West Bank city.

But a trail of damage remains of the violence that raged through the Biblical town.

Broken grave stones, some of them with black and blue Stars of David painted on them, lie scattered around a Muslim cemetary located just metres from the evacuated house.

A burnt-out car wreck stands nearby. White paint covers up slogans spray-painted by rioting settlers on the walls of a Palestinian mosque adjacent to the house, one of which read "Mohammed is a pig."

Jerusalem  - Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Israel would respond to a surge in rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip Wednesday.

"It is clear that this fire only sharpens what we have said all the time. There cannot be a situation in which it has been agreed that there is calm (a truce), but at the same time the reality on the ground is complete different," he told reporters as he cast his vote in a primary of his ruling Kadima party.

"Of course this requires us to relate to it and will relate to it," he said.

Gaza - A Palestinian was killed and three other civilians were wounded on Wednesday night after an Israeli artillery shell hit Palestinian houses in northern Gaza, medics and eyewitnesses said.

The attack followed a series of homemade rocket attacks carried out by Gaza militants from northern Gaza on southern Israeli towns. Three Israelis were earlier injured, according to Israeli Radio.

Washington  - US President George W Bush will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday to discuss the Middle East peace process, the White House said.

The two men will focus on negotiations with the Israelis as well as developing the Palestinian economy, viable institutions and security forces in the West Bank, spokeswoman Dana Perino said.