GAZA CITY - FOLLOWING are the main events in the 18 months since Hamas's bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip:

2007

- June 14: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas sacks the Hamas-dominated government after ferocious fighting between his Fatah party and the Islamists in Gaza kills at least 116 people.

- June 15: Hamas completes its seizure of Gaza after routing Abbas's forces.

- June 17: A new Palestinian government is sworn in, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

- June 18: EU and US announce normalisation of ties with the Palestinian government that were partially frozen after Hamas took office in March 2006.

- June 20: Abbas rules out dialogue with Hamas.

- July 1: Israel unblocks some funds owed to the Palestinian Authority, Civil servants start receiving their first wages for more than a year.

- July 20: Israel frees 256 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to Abbas.

More are released in October and December.

- Aug 6: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas hold talks in the West Bank city of Jericho, their first meeting in the Palestinian territory.

- Sept 19: Israel declares the Gaza Strip a 'hostile entity.' - Oct 28: Israel slaps economic sanctions on Gaza.

- Nov 2: Abbas and Hamas officials hold their first meeting since June.

- Nov 27: Israel and the Palestinians agree at a US conference to restart peace talks after a seven-year hiatus. The first round takes place in December.

- Dec 17: International donors meeting in Paris pledge 7.4 billion dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority.

2008

- Jan 10-13: George W. Bush makes his first visit as president to Israel and the West Bank.

- Jan 17: Israel imposes a blockade on Gaza.

- Jan 23: Militants blow open large sections of Gaza's border fence with Egypt. Thousands of Palestinians pour across to buy supplies.

- Feb 3: Egyptian and Hamas-led forces reseal the border.

- Feb 27-March 3: More than 120 Palestinians killed in Israeli military's 'Hot Winter' operation in Gaza.

- March 6: Eight students killed in gun attack on a Jewish institute in west Jerusalem. Hamas claims responsibility.

- May 19: France admits having contacts with Hamas.

- June 4: Abbas calls for reconciliation talks with Hamas, which accepts his offer.

- June 11: Israel's security cabinet decides to give Egyptian truce efforts a chance, but also orders the military to prepare for an offensive. Hamas dismisses the decision as 'not serious.' - June 19: A six-month truce negotiated by Egyptian mediators comes into force.

- July 25: Five Hamas militants and a young girl killed in a bomb attack on the Gaza Strip.

- Aug 2: Nine Palestinians are killed and more than 90 injured in the Gaza Strip in clashes between Hamas and Fatah.

- Aug 25: Israel frees 198 Palestinian prisoners.

- Nov 5: Seven Palestinians are killed in an Israeli operation in Gaza, prompting the resumption of rocket attacks on Israel.

- Nov 12: Four Palestinian militants are killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip.

- Dec 11: Israel authorises the transfer of 25 million dollars (17.7 million euros) to banks in the Gaza Strip to pay civil servants.

- Dec 15: Israel frees 227 Palestinian prisoners.

- Dec 16: Abbas says he will 'very soon' call Palestinian elections in the absence of reconciliation with his Hamas rivals.

- Dec 19: Rockets are fired from Gaza at Israel, shortly after the official announcement by Hamas that it is ending the truce.

- Dec 20: The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas, claims its first mortar attacks on Israel since the end of the ceasefire.

- Dec 22: Hamas agrees to hold fire against Israel for 24 hours but warns it will resume suicide attacks if the Jewish state launches an offensive.

- Dec 23: A rocket attack on Israel.

- Three members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade are killed by an Israeli patrol as they attempt to plant explosive devices.

- Dec 24: More than 80 rocket and mortar attacks on the south of Israel.

- Dec 25: Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calls for residents of Gaza to stop Hamas from firing rockets and mortars.

- Speaking from Cairo, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni vows to end Hamas's control of the Gaza Strip.

- Dec 26: New rocket and mortar attacks on Israel, as the Israeli authorities allow more than 80 lorries carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza.

- Two girls are accidentally killed as Palestinian militants fire more rockets targetting Israel.

- Dec 27: Israel blitzes Hamas targets in Gaza with a wave of air strikes that kill at least 225 people.

- Dec 28: Israel launches a second day of air strikes and mobilises more than 6,000 reservists as it threatens a ground incursion, but also says it will allow in some humanitarian aid.

- The United Nations calls for an end to military action as the toll rises to more than 280 and militants target Israel with rockets.

- Protests are held in the West Bank and across the Arab world as governments mobilise to send medical supplies and aid destined for the stricken Gaza Strip. -- AFP