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In Gaza City, Palestinian Authority officials call for orderly celebrations as the withdrawal of Jewish settlers begins. But the Islamist Hamas movement calls the pullout a "victory for the armed resistance."

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was abducted in the Gaza Strip earlier this year and held for nearly four months, writes a book about his ordeal. Kidnapped: And Other Dispatches describes his ordeal. He says a radio brought by guards offered a lifeline and psychological boost.

Intense fighting is still being reported throughout the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces are pushing deeper into neighborhoods in southern and eastern Gaza City. Witnesses say large groups of civilians in the south are fleeing their homes as Israeli ground troops, backed by attack helicopters, search the area for Hamas fighters.

The U.N. protested Israeli fire on its warehouse in Gaza. Israel said Hamas militants were launching rockets from the U.N. compound. Israel also killed a top Hamas leader in its operations in the Gaza Strip. And there was speculation that Israel and Hamas are close to an agreement on a cease-fire.

Israel says its Gaza military offensive will continue despite a U.N. call for a cease-fire. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Thursday night calling for an "immediate" and "durable" cease-fire in Gaza. A spokesman for Hamas says the group had not been consulted on the cease-fire.

The U.N. Relief And Works Agency has suspended operations in the Gaza Strip after one of its drivers was killed by Israeli fire. John Ging, UNRWA's director of operations in Gaza, says the suspension of aid is "a disaster" for the people of Gaza. He says Israel had approved the movement of the aid convoy.

As Israeli forces press their offensive in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among Palestinian civilians is increasing. Israel blames Hamas for the casualties, saying the Islamist militants are operating amid the civilian population.

A Gaza City resident says he's been sleeping in his living room for the last three days because of fears an Israeli airstrike will hit a police building he can see from his bedroom window. Muhammad Shariff talks about what life is like inside Gaza as Israeli bombs rain down.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, says there must be an immediate cease-fire to end the violence in the Gaza Strip. He also wants an agreement on an international force to guarantee the cease-fire.

Huge explosions shook Gaza City as Israeli planes bombed three government buildings and the parliament on the sixth day of the Israeli offensive. On the diplomatic side, both Israel and Hamas are resisting international pressure to agree to a ceasefire. NPR's Mike Shuster talks with Steve Inskeep about the situation in Gaza.

The conflict in Gaza presents a challenge for the incoming Obama administration, which already was facing a packed Middle East agenda. Leslie Gelb tells Steve Inskeep that the question now is whether the situation in Gaza will make it harder for President-elect Barack Obama to keep his campaign promises of active peacemaking between the Israelis and Palestinians. Gelb is a former state and defense department official and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Three Middle East experts discuss how the current conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza might end. Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Ambassador Edward Djerejian, director of the James Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University, and Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, offer their insight.