Israel's offensive in Gaza: a timeline
Key events since Israel began its offensive against Hamas which has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians.
Key events since Israel began its offensive against Hamas which has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians.
Saturday, December 27
* Israel launches Operation Cast Lead with a massive air assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a bid to halt militant rocket attacks.
Sunday, December 28
* Israeli warplanes bomb smuggling tunnels on the Egypt-Gaza border.
Wednesday, December 31
* Rockets fired from Gaza land more than 40 kilometres (25 miles) inside Israel.
Thursday, January 1
* Senior Hamas official Nizar Rayan killed in an Israeli air raid.
Saturday, January 3
* Israeli ground forces enter the Gaza Strip.
Sunday, January 4
* Israeli forces surround Gaza City and control a key highway, cutting the territory in half.
Monday, January 5
* Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni rejects EU calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Tuesday, January 6
* The Israeli army says three soldiers are killed by "friendly" tank fire.
* Israeli strikes near three UN schools kill 48 people, medics say.
Wednesday, January 7
* Israel briefly halts the shelling to allow aid into Gaza. Hamas says it will stop firing rockets into Israel for as long as the Israeli attacks cease.
Thursday, January 8
* The UN Security Council approves a resolution calling for an "immediate, durable" ceasefire in Gaza leading to a "full withdrawal" of Israeli troops. Both Israel and Hamas ignore it.
* The main UN agency operating in Gaza suspends operations after a UN-flagged convoy is hit by tank shells.
Friday, January 9
* Anti-Israeli protests are held across the Arab world.
Saturday, January 10
* New round of diplomacy launched in Cairo, with Egypt hosting separate talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and a
Hamas delegation.
Sunday, January 11
* Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Israel is nearing its goals -- but fighting continues.
Monday, January 12
* Hamas is nearing victory, says Ismail Haniya, the head of the Islamist movement's government in the Gaza Strip.
Wednesday, January 14
* Three rockets slam into northern Israel from Lebanon in the second attack in less than a week. No casualties reported.
Thursday, January 15
* A wing of a hospital in Gaza City ablaze after an Israeli strike.
* The UN agency for Palestinian refugees suspends operations inside Gaza after its compound is hit by an Israeli strike, wounding three.
* Hamas interior minister Said Siam is killed in Israeli air strike.
Friday, January 16
* Hamas proposes a year-long truce with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the blockade of the enclave.
* The Palestinian death toll since December 27 reaches at least 1,188 Palestinians, with 5,285 wounded, according to Gaza medics.
* UN chief Ban Ki-moon says that a ceasefire in the war in the Gaza Strip was "very close."
* A Hamas delegation returns to Cairo for a second round of truce talks.
* Arab and other Muslim leaders meeting in Qatar accuse Israel of "crimes of war and genocide" in Gaza.
* US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sign a deal in Washington aimed at halting arms smuggling into Gaza as part of efforts to clinch a ceasefire.
* A senior Israeli government official says Israel's security cabinet is expected to vote in favour on Saturday of a proposal for a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Saturday, January 17
* The Israeli security cabinet votes in favour of a unilateral ceasefire in its 22-day-old war in the Gaza Strip which has left much of the enclave in ruins.
* The death toll in Gaza rises to 1,206 people, with 5,300 wounded. On the Israeli side 10 soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
* Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Israel will halt its offensive in Gaza at 2:00 am (0000 GMT) on Sunday but troops will remain in the enclave for the time being and will respond to Hamas fire.
* Olmert says Israel's war in Gaza has achieved all its goals.
* Hamas official Osama Hemdan earlier says the Islamist group will fight on if Israel orders a unilateral ceasefire because this does not envisage an Israeli army pullout.
* Egypt says it will host an international summit on the Gaza crisis on Sunday attended by several European leaders as well as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
* Israeli warships and tanks, dug in on the outskirts of Gaza City, keep lobbying shells into the densely populated urban area.
* United Nations officials demand an investigation into a new Israeli strike on a UN-run school in Gaza, which killed a woman and a child and which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemns as "outrageous".
* Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit says Cairo is "not bound" by a US-Israeli agreement to stop arms smuggling to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
* Palestinian militants launch at least eight rockets from the Gaza Strip following Olmert's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire, according to the Israeli military.
Sunday, January 18
* Israel initiates a unilateral ceasefire at 2:00 am (0000 GMT).