Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s penchant for scented candles is setting off a stink, with media and politicians accusing the Israeli of extravagantly spending public money.

Israeli police have said two rockets fired from Lebanon have landed in northern Israel, causing no injuries.

Israel launched an airstrike in the Syrian capital Damascus today.

Israel’s Cabinet has approved a deal to allow more EU flights, hours after the country’s airlines went on strike out of concerns that the agreement would cost them jobs and possibly even ruin their companies.

Israel’s three airlines went on strike today over a proposed “Open Skies” deal with the European Union that union workers say jeopardises their jobs and could even cause the local airline industry to collapse.

Israel’s prime minister today defended the actions of his country’s security forces following a public uproar over the mysterious death of a man who apparently hanged himself while being held secretly in a maximum-security prison.

Vandals torched and scrawled graffiti on a Palestinian mosque in the West Bank today, the Israeli military and police said.

Today’s attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse provoked horror and condemnation in equal measure.

Egypt has brokered a ceasefire between Palestinian militant factions and Israel after four days of violence, an Egyptian security official said today.

An Iranian man wounded by an explosion in Bangkok lobbed a grenade at police that rebounded and blew off his leg in a series of blasts Israel said were an attempted terrorist attack by Iran.

IRAN said yesterday it had successfully test fired what it described as two long-range missiles, flexing its military muscle in the face of mounting Western pressure over its nuclear programme.

Israel’s former president, Moshe Katsav, heads to prison tomorrow to begin serving a seven-year term for his conviction in a landmark rape case that both entranced and appalled the nation.

IRAN is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose is to develop nuclear arms, the UN nuclear atomic energy agency said yesterday for the first time.

Israel has launched air strikes on Gaza after gunmen killed seven Israelis in a series of attacks near the border with Egypt.

Seven Israelis died when squads of gunmen armed with heavy weapons and explosives crossed into southern Israel from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula today and launched a series of attacks.

The Palestinian president, in a rare interview to the Israeli media, has condemned the deadly attack on a Jewish settler family over the weekend as “despicable, immoral and inhuman”.

The Israeli air force has shot down a suspicious object hovering in the desert region where the country’s main nuclear reactor is located.

An inferno that has raged for four days in a northern Israeli forest is under control, fire chiefs said today.

AROUND 40 people died yesterday when a bus burst into flames as it raced to an Israeli prison during a massive forest fire. The victims were mainly prison guards participating in the rescue mission, officials said. It was one of the deadliest accidents in the nation’s history.

Israel’s former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for more than four years after suffering a series of strokes, was moved to his home today.

Israel’s hard-line foreign minister said his party would try to block any extension of Israel’s settlement slowdown, a move that could derail the Middle East peace negotiations.

A Palestinian who broke into the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv trying to take hostages and demanding asylum was in Israeli custody today.

A Palestinian took hostages in the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv today after shots were fired outside in an incident that appeared to have only an indirect link to recent tensions between the two countries.

A man is holding hostages in the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv after shots were fired outside, Israeli police said today.

Shots have been fired at the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, and one person was wounded, Israeli police said today.

Israel and Egypt signalled a temporary easing of the Gaza Strip blockade today after widespread international condemnation of the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla en route to the sealed-off Palestinian territory.

Israeli warships attacked at least one of the six ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid for blockaded Gaza today, killing at least ten and wounding an unknown number of people on board, reports said.

Israeli antiquities authorities operating under heavy police guard began relocating ancient graves today to make way for construction of a hospital emergency room, setting off protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews who say Jewish remains are being disturbed

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development today accepted Israel into its ranks, capping a lengthy effort by the Jewish state to join the exclusive club in the face of stiff opposition from Palestinians.

Foreign Affairs minister Micheál Martin has said the three Irish passports used by a group of operatives who allegedly assassinated a Hamas commander in Dubai had valid numbers, reversing his department's position of a day earlier.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister has signalled he regretted humiliating Turkey’s ambassador.

ISRAELI and Swedish officials have responded furiously to a Swedish newspaper article that suggested Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said he is willing to negotiate peace with Syria, but only if talks are held without preconditions.

Israel implemented a unilateral ceasefire early today in its 22-day offensive that turned Gaza neighbourhoods into battlegrounds and dealt a stinging blow to the Islamic militants of Hamas.

Israeli forces pounded dozens of Hamas targets early today as the army kept up pressure on the Islamic militant group ahead of a crucial vote on whether to end Israel’s punishing three-week-long campaign against Gaza’s rulers.

Thirteen soldiers were hurt when a Palestinian ploughed his car into their group at an intersection near Jerusalem’s Old City, police and rescue services sa

AN ISRAELI police officer fatally shot himself yesterday at an airport departure ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, sparking fear of an assassination attempt and prompting bodyguards to whisk away Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, officials said.

Guns went quiet as a six-month truce between Israel and Gaza Strip militants took effect early today, marred only by widespread scepticism about its ability to hold.

ISRAELI defence officials and political pundits rounded on deputy prime minister Shaul Mofaz yesterday after he threatened attacks against Iran, accusing him of exploiting war jitters to advance personal ambitions.

A drunken man from Kuwait, claiming he had a bomb, briefly held three Jewish teenagers captive today in their room in a Polish hotel where they were staying for Holocaust commemoration ceremonies, police said.

Israel forces entered a northern Gaza town today and seized a local Hamas leader from his home amid heavy fighting with Palestinian gunmen, the Israeli military and Hamas militants said.

An Israeli Cabinet minister confirmed today that Israel was trying to bring Syria back to the negotiating table.

Israeli troops opened fire on a car today, killing four Palestinian militants, medical officials said.

Israel has mobilised police and the military to keep a Hamas demonstration today against its Gaza blockade from turning into a mass border breakout.