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

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

PALESTINIAN officials said yesterday they were preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel’s consent, because they are losing hope they can achieve their aspirations through peace talks.

Israel’s navy chief has apologised after being caught in a strip club.

ISRAELI police questioned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday for the second time since he announced he would resign after his centrist Kadima party chooses a new leader in September.

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.

Pop star Madonna toasted the Jewish new year with Israeli President Shimon Peres and declared herself an “ambassador for Judaism,” local newspapers reported today.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today said he hopes to reach a peace deal with Israel within a year.

Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the state to justify its plea bargain that dropped rape charges against the former president.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert praised an Arab peace plan that calls for the full recognition of Israel as a major breakthrough in Arab relations with the Jewish state, but he flatly rejected its demand for the return of Palestinian refugees, Israeli media reported today.

Israeli politicians today debated whether to grant temporary leave to embattled President Moshe Katsav, who called impending rape and other sexual assault charges the product of “poisonous, horrible lies”.

Israeli president Moshe Katsav today asked parliament to temporarily remove him from office after Israel’s attorney general recommended that he be indicted on rape and other charges, according to parliamentary spokesman Giora Pordes.

Israel’s politically powerful justice minister today led the growing chorus of calls for President Moshe Katsav to resign over impending charges of rape and abuse of power.

Former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who announced his return to politics this week, enjoys a wide lead over the Labour Party’s current leader and would win the party’s leadership race if elections were held today, according to a poll published in an Israeli newspaper today.

In an effort to shore up a shaky truce in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military officials today said they were reducing their operations in the West Bank and had made it more difficult for field commanders to order arrest raids there.

Israel has quietly backed off from its plan to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah because of the international condemnation that his killing would create, the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv reported today.

Israelis would vote Ehud Olmert out of office if elections were held now, polls indicated today, as the defiant prime minister defended his performance in the Lebanon war and lashed out at his critics.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ignited a political firestorm by linking the conflict in Lebanon to his plan to withdraw from much of the West Bank.

ISRAELI leader Ehud Olmert presented his government to parliament yesterday, pledging to remove isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank but to hold on forever to major enclaves and East Jerusalem.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was reported to be in a “very worrying” condition as he spent his ninth day in a medically induced coma since suffering a massive brain haemorrhage.

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon underwent emergency surgery today after a brain scan revealed a rise in intracranial pressure and some bleeding in his brain.

The more moderate line promoted by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s new centrist party suffered a big setback when plans for new settlement buildings were revealed.

Israeli troops will impose an “aerial siege” on parts of Gaza, shooting from helicopters or gunboats at anyone entering a “no-go zone” near the border, as part of a new campaign against Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli towns, a senior defence official said today.

PRIME Minister Ariel Sharon widened his lead over his rivals yesterday as Hamas said its nine-month truce is over.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has widened his lead over his rivals in upcoming national elections following a suicide bombing at an Israeli mall this week, according to new public opinion polls published today.

Ariel Sharon’s new party would sweep a March 28 election and crush the hard-line Likud Party he abandoned, allowing the Israeli prime minister to form a coalition with the dovish Labour Party, according to opinion polls published today.

Ariel Sharon’s main allies launched their election campaign today, saying the prime minister’s new centrist party would push for a final agreement with the Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Polls published today, a day after Ariel Sharon broke away from his hardline Likud party, showed him mustering enough support to return to the prime minister’s seat at the head of a moderate coalition.

Senior officials in Israel’s security establishment are advising that the army evacuate the Gaza-Egypt border at the same time it hands over the rest of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv reported today.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today announced his candidacy for leadership of the ruling Likud Party, issuing a direct challenge to current party head Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

HARDLINER Benjamin Netanyahu is set to announce his intention next week to run against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in primary elections for the ruling Likud Party.

“A DREAM” is how Israeli coach Avraham Grant described the fighting comeback at Lansdowne Road.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said today that Israel would not delay its planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip beyond its new mid-August start date, disputing settler hopes that the pull-out can be indefinitely postponed.

Israeli finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu was attacked at a wedding party by a group of people opposed to the Gaza withdrawal plan, it was reported today.

RESPONDING to growing threats of insubordination, Israel's army chief announced yesterday he'll expel officers and soldiers who refuse to participate in a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

JAILED uprising leader Marwan Barghouti threw Palestinian politics into turmoil last night when he let it be known from his Israeli prison cell that wants to succeed Yasser Arafat.

Yasser Arafat has lapsed into a coma, a senior Palestinian official said today after the ailing leader was rushed into intensive care at a French military hospital following a sharp deterioration in his health.

Yasser Arafat has lost consciousness repeatedly in recent hours after he was rushed into intensive care at a French military hospital, Palestinians said today. They described his condition as extremely serious.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a final break with his former allies in the Jewish settler movement, appealing to parliament to approve a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in a historic vote tonight.

Israel is considering building thousands more homes in West Bank settlements, in line with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to keep large chunks of the territory while giving up the Gaza Strip, security officials said today.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will ask his Cabinet on Sunday to approve his proposal to withdraw from the entire Gaza Strip, officials said today, setting up a showdown with opponents that could bring down the government.

PRIME Minister Ariel Sharon will ask his Cabinet to vote on his newly revised Gaza withdrawal plan the evacuation of just three small settlements in hopes of securing the support of undecided ministers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will ask his Cabinet to vote only on the first stage of his Gaza new withdrawal plan – the evacuation of three small settlements – in hopes of securing the support of undecided ministers, officials said today.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is to tinker with his plan for pulling out of Gaza and four West Bank settlements in an effort to salvage the proposal in the wake of its resounding defeat in a ruling party referendum.