Israeli authorities have agreed to allow Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin to receive conjugal visits in prison so he and his wife can try to start a family, Israeli media reported today.

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas today as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second consecutive day as Israel refused to rule out a full-scale invasion.

Israeli troops clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border today, while warplanes flattened buildings and killed at least 20 people overnight as fighting entered its second week with the US signalling it will not push Israel toward a fast ceasefire.

Israeli troops fought Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon today, and there were Israeli casualties, the Israeli military said in Jerusalem.

ISRAELI air strikes killed 42 people across Lebanon yesterday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.

Israel intends to impose a sea and air blockade on Lebanon, Israeli Army Radio today quoted a senior military official as saying.

Israeli forces have captured a top West Bank leader of the militant Islamic Hamas group, said by the army to have planned and ordered a string of suicide bombings which killed 55 Israelis.

Ariel Sharon’s Kadima Party today chose acting prime minister Ehud Olmert to stand in for him as party chairman, Israeli Army Radio reported.

Israeli prosecutors today filed a charge of attempted murder against Shimshon Siton, an Israeli teenager accused of battering a Palestinian youth with rocks during a settler takeover of an abandoned Palestinian house in the Gaza Strip last month, Israeli Army Radio reported.

Israeli leaders backed away from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s latest threats against Yasser Arafat, saying there are no immediate plans to kill the Palestinian leader.

Troops at a West Bank checkpoint arrested a 10-year-old boy trying to smuggle a bomb into Israel.

Troops at a West Bank checkpoint arrested a 10-year-old boy trying to smuggle a bomb into Israel today.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party appears to be recovering from corruption allegations, new polls published today showed.

Israeli authorities today barred 12 Palestinian lawmakers from travelling from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to attend a parliamentary session discussing democratic reforms sought by Israel and the United States.

First reports are coming in of a gun attack on a school in Israel.