Large numbers of Palestinians have converged on a home in Gaza belonging to a senior member of the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The move follows reports the Israeli air force was about to attack it, but there has been no confirmation of this.

Similar action on Saturday caused Israel to call off an air strike on the home of another militant leader.

Meanwhile, a UN official has toured Beit Hanoun, a town at the centre of a large Israeli army ground operation.

Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said she hoped her visit would reassure innocent Palestinian civilians that the "world has not abandoned them".

In a brief visit to northern Gaza, during which she met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Ms Arbour listened to the accounts of local residents on the Israeli offensive on the town, in which about 80 people were killed.

"The violations of human rights in the Palestinian territories are intolerable," she said. "I think it's clear that civilians are tremendously exposed."

'A simple message'

The BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says the owner of the two-floor house in Beit Lahiya, Wael Rajab, told him that the Israelis had warned him that they planned to attack his home.

The air force often telephones a warning 10 minutes before a strike to give the occupants time to escape and keep down casualties, our correspondent says.

Mosques in Gaza have been calling on volunteers to assemble to protect the house.

A crowd gathered in the street and young men with Hamas flags sat on the roof, our correspondent reports.

"I came as a citizen because the danger is not a house of Hamas. The danger is to all the houses, and this is a simple message to strengthen national unity," local Fatah leader Zuhdi Kilani told the Associated Press news agency.

Similar action on Saturday caused Israel to call off an air strike on the home of another militant leader.

For years Palestinians have been completely at the mercy of the Israeli air force, but they clearly believe that now they have found a weakness, our correspondent says.

He says if the Palestinians know an attack is coming they can probably foil it by massing in the target zone.

The Israelis can no longer expect to limit civilian casualties by calling ahead and clearing people out, our correspondent adds.

Israeli forces have made regular incursions into Gaza and the West Bank following the capture of an Israeli soldier, Cpl Gilad Shalit, in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants on 25 June.

About 400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed in the attacks.

Israel says that these raids are an attempt to stop rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian militants.

Suspended talks

Meanwhile, a senior aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says talks on a national unity government have been suspended. A leading Hamas representative has denied this.

There has been a long series of talks between the main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, about forming a unity government, in the hope it would lead to the lifting of Israeli and Western sanctions imposed on the present Hamas-led administration.

But negotiations have stumbled over whether a new government would explicitly recognize Israel. President Abbas has insisted that it should, and Hamas that it should not.

The United States and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist organization, and have called on it to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Photo Caption

Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday