Jan 20 (Reuters) - Voicing shock at stark scenes of destruction, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Israel was poised to withdraw its troops. Here is a timeline of events since a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip ended last month. Dec. 19, 2008 - Ceasefire expires. Dec. 24 - Gaza Palestinian militants fire rockets at Israel. Dec. 27 - Israel launches air strikes on Gaza, killing at least 229 Palestinians. Dec. 28 - Israeli air strikes hit the Islamic University and target smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip. Dec. 31 - Emergency U.N. Security Council session on Arab resolution calling for ceasefire adjourns without a vote. Jan. 1, 2009 - Israel kills Nizar Rayyan, a hardline Hamas leader, in an air attack on his Gaza Strip home. Jan. 3 - Israel launches a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, sending tanks and infantry into battle with Hamas. Jan. 4 - Israelis cut the strip in half from the border fence to the Mediterranean. Troops and armour ring Gaza City. Jan. 5 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a peace mission, and U.S. President George W. Bush, call for ceasefire. Jan. 6 - Israeli shelling kills 42 Palestinians at a U.N. school in Jabalya refugee camp where civilians had sheltered. -- Egypt, backed by France and other European powers, proposes an immediate ceasefire. Jan. 8 - Rockets fired from Lebanon strike northern Israel, wounding two people. -- The U.N. Security Council votes for a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but the United States abstains, citing Egyptian-mediated talks on a truce. -- The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which distributes the majority of aid in Gaza, suspends its operations after an Israeli tank shell kills an UNRWA driver in a convoy. Jan. 9 - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejects the U.N. resolution as "unworkable" and, noting Palestinians fired rockets at Israel, says the army will go on defending Israelis. Jan. 10 - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal accuses Israel of perpetrating a "holocaust" in Gaza and says his group will not consider a ceasefire until Israel ends its assault. -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets Mubarak in Cairo. Egypt says it will not accept foreign troops on its side of the border with Gaza to stop arms smuggling. Jan. 11 - Israeli forces edge into the Gaza Strip's most populous area, throwing army reservists into battle. -- Israel says stopping arms smuggling from Egypt to the Gaza Strip should be done by Egyptian forces and rejects the idea of an international force. Jan. 12 - Olmert, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni decide against ordering troops in to engage in all-out urban warfare. Jan. 13 - Hamas says it has "substantial observations" about an Egyptian ceasefire proposal. Jan. 14 - Rockets fired from Lebanon strike Israel for the second time in a week. -- U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Cairo and calls again for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. -- A Hamas delegation is holding talks with Egyptian intelligence officials on an Egyptian initiative, but Hamas has said changes to the Egyptian proposals are needed. -- Human Rights Watch says Israel's daily three-hour break in attacks to facilitate the supply of humanitarian aid to Gazans is "woefully insufficient". Jan. 15 - Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza city unleashing their heaviest shelling in three weeks of war. -- An Israeli envoy is to meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo after a Hamas delegation ends talks on Egyptian truce proposal. -- UNRWA says its compound is struck twice by Israeli fire and three staff members are injured. -- Ban tells Israel the death toll from fighting has reached an "unbearable point". Jan. 17 - Israel declares unilateral ceasefire with effect from 0000 GMT. Hamas guerrillas say the war will go on. Jan. 18 - Hamas announces a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. -- There is shooting from both sides after the declarations, but the ceasefire appears to gain strength and Israeli troops begin pulling out of Gaza. Jan. 19 - Israeli forces press on with a gradual withdrawal. -- A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing vows to replenish its arsenal of rockets and other weapons. -- A source in the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip said 5,000 homes, 16 government buildings and 20 mosques were destroyed and 20,000 houses damaged in the three-week war. Jan. 20 - Ban Ki-moon visits the Gaza Strip and calls the Israeli attack on a UNRWA compound outrageous and demands an investigation. -- Two children playing with unexploded ordnance are killed when it detonates, Hamas officials say.
A local U.N. worker stands inside the United Nations compound that was struck by Israeli fire, during the visit of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (not pictured) in Gaza City January 20, ...
Egypt
