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

US President George W Bush, in his first public reaction to Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, has said that the Jewish state was justified in protecting itself against Hamas militants.

In carefully choreographed moves, airliners carrying swapped prisoners landed almost simultaneously in Israel and Lebanon tonight.

Military jets carrying prisoners to be swapped in a long-awaited deal between arch enemies Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah touched down before dawn today under tight security at a military airport in Cologne.