Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar says the Gaza-rulers are not prepared to relinquish fight against Israel under any circumstances.

Navy officers confirm security mission will amount to thousands of hours of missile boats' operational hours each year.

The population of Israel topped 7.8 million at the end of 2011, according to figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Polls show that a Lapid-led independent party would garner 15-20 Knesset seats, and could potentially form a coalition that would rival Netanyahu's Likud.

According to investigation documents in Haaretz's possession, Likud MK and coalition chairman Ze'ev Elkin contacted activists charged with tracking army movements amid uncertainty on planned outpost evacuation.

Gabriel Cadis, head of the Orthodox Church Association in Jaffa, was stabbed in front of many witnesses outside the St George Church in Jaffa.

Bank Leumi says the file contains the same credit card information revealed earlier this week, warns that it should not be downloaded as it may contain spyware.

Some 680 rockets, mortars and long-range missiles were fired at southern Israel in 2011, according to the Israeli military.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was on Thursday indicted alongside a number of other people for allegedly taking bribes in a massive property scandal, court officials said.

Israel has barred a dozen Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank for a period of up to a year, a step Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pledged to take to rein in violence against Palestinians, officials and Israeli media reports said.