Hamas vowed today to avenge the killing of a Palestinian man and his two children with more suicide bombings in Israel amid tentative efforts to establish ceasefire talks.
Both sides said they hoped a visit starting this afternoon by German Foreign Minister Mr Joschka Fischer would assist attempts to end the violence, but diplomatic sources said a high-level Israeli-Palestinian meeting was unlikely this week.
Thousands of mourners massed at the shattered home of Samir Abu Zeid, at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where he was blown to bits late on Sunday with his seven-year-old daughter Inas and six-year-old son Suleiman.
"We have mujahideen (fighters) inside the Zionist entity awaiting the signal to explode like an earthquake," a member of Izz el-Din al-Qassam, the Hamas military wing, shouted over loudspeakers before Abu Zeid's funeral.
The Palestinians accuse Israel of assassinating Abu Zeid, described by neighbours as a master bomb-maker and a leader of the military wing of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Movement, in a missile attack on his home.
The Israeli army denied the allegation, claiming he killed himself and his children making a bomb.
Hamas has claimed several of the suicide attacks that have killed scores of Israelis since a Palestinian uprising against occupation erupted last September after peace talks stalled.
At least 680 people, including more than 520 Palestinians and nearly 150 Israelis, have been killed in almost 11 months of conflict.
Six Palestinians were killed yesterday.
Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers demolished an unfinished nursery school and an apartment block in Arab East Jerusalem this morning in a move Palestinians said was part of Israel's escalating violence against them.
Dozens of Israeli police guarded at least three bulldozers as they flattened the block of eight apartments and the kindergarten, which were both under construction.
The Israeli municipality had no immediate comment. It usually issues demolition orders in East Jerusalem on grounds that the buildings were erected without permission.
The United States and United Nations have condemned the demolitions and urged Israel to stop the practice.