TIMELINE: Israel goes to the polls

(Reuters) - Israeli political leaders are winding up their campaigns ahead of a February 10 parliamentary election.

Here is a timeline of events in Israel since former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fell ill in 2006:

January 4, 2006 - Ariel Sharon suffers massive brain hemorrhage. His powers are transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.

January 25 - Islamic militant group Hamas, sworn to destroying Israel, wins Palestinian parliamentary election.

March 28 - Israel goes to the polls. Olmert's Kadima party wins the most parliamentary seats, 29, in the 120-member parliament.

March 29 - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swears in a Hamas-led government.

May 4 - Kadima-led government sworn in.

July-August - At least 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 Israelis are killed in 34 days of fighting that erupts after Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

June 14, 2007 - Hamas seizes Gaza after overpowering Abbas's Fatah forces in a week of fighting in which at least 100 people are killed.

-- Abbas dismisses Hamas-led unity government and appoints a Fatah-backed administration, led by Salam Fayyad, a technocratic economist favored by the West.

November 27 - U.S. hosts an international conference in Annapolis, Maryland that yields promises from both sides to try to forge a two-state agreement by the end of 2008.

December 12 - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators open talks in discord over Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and Palestinian security efforts, issues that continue to dog talks.

January 9, 2008 - George W. Bush makes his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories as U.S. president.

March 6 - Palestinian gunman kills eight students at the Jewish Merkaz Harav religious college. Hamas officials claim the deadliest attack by Palestinian on Israelis in two years. The gunman is shot dead.

May 14 - Bush arrives in Israel to celebrate its 60th anniversary and try to spur progress in peace talks.

June 19 - A truce begins between Hamas and Israel. It calls for Hamas to stop cross-border rocket fire and for Israel to gradually ease its embargo on Gaza.

September 17 - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni elected Kadima leader, replacing Olmert, the focus of a graft investigation.

September 21 - Olmert resigns as prime minister in corruption scandal, but stays on as caretaker prime minister.

December 18 - Hamas declares the end of the ceasefire, which expires the next day with a surge of cross-border fighting.

December 24 - Gaza Palestinian militants fire rockets at Israel.

December 27 - Israel launches air strikes on Gaza in response to the rocket and mortar fire, killing at least 229 Palestinians.

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

January 17 - Israel declares unilateral ceasefire to start the next day.

January 18 - Hamas announces a ceasefire. Gaza medical officials put Palestinian death toll at nearly 1,300, including at least 700 civilians. Israel says 10 of its soldiers and three civilians killed since the conflict erupted.

February 8 - Palestinian militants fire rockets into southern Israel despite the ceasefire, which has been strained by sporadic salvoes and Israeli air strikes.

February 10 - Parliamentary election to be held.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)