TIMELINE: Israeli-Hamas violence

(Reuters) - Here is a timeline of events since a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip ended last month.

The ceasefire had been eroded by violence from both sides since early November, when Israel killed several gunmen in air and ground raids, and Hamas fired rockets into southern Israel.

December 19, 2008 - Ceasefire expires.

December 24 - Gaza Palestinian militants fire rockets at Israel.

December 27 - Israel launches air strikes on Gaza, killing at least 229 Palestinians.

December 28 - Israeli air strikes hit the Islamic University and target smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

December 31 - Emergency U.N. Security Council session on Arab resolution calling for ceasefire adjourns without a vote.

January 3, 2009 - Israel launches a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, sending tanks and infantry into battle with Hamas.

January 4 - Israelis cut the strip in half from the border fence to the Mediterranean. Troops and armor ring Gaza City.

January 5 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a peace mission, and U.S. President George W. Bush, call for ceasefire.

January 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.

January 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.

January 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.

January 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 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. Egypt says it will not accept foreign troops on its side of the border with Gaza to stop arms smuggling.

January 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.

January 12 - Olmert, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni decide against ordering troops in to engage in all-out urban warfare.

January 13 - Hamas says it has "substantial observations" about an Egyptian ceasefire proposal.

January 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."

January 15 - Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza city unleashing their heaviest shelling in three weeks of war.

-- 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."

January 17 - Israel declares unilateral ceasefire. Hamas guerrillas say the war will go on.

January 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 to pull out of Gaza.

January 19 - A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing says it will replenish its arsenal of rockets and other weapons.

January 20 - Ban Ki-moon visits the Gaza Strip and condemns an "excessive use" of force by Israel as well as Hamas's rocket fire into Israel. He also called the Israeli attack on a UNRWA compound outrageous and demanded an investigation.

January 21 - Israel completes a troop pullout from Gaza.

-- According to Palestinian and international estimates, reconstruction of Gaza may cost close to $2 billion.