Israel would “have to act” if the Syrian regime collapses and there is a risk Syria’s chemical weapons and missiles could fall into the hands of militant groups, the Jewish state’s prime minister warned today.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of being the most irresponsible country in the world and said sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme “haven’t worked.”

Israel has accused Iran of being behind a bungled terrorist attack in Thailand after a man blew his legs off trying to throw a grenade at police.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a “surgical” military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Israel’s defence minister urged the world today to apply “paralysing” sanctions on Iran’s energy sector and leadership.

Israel apologised today for the deaths of Egyptian troops killed during a shoot-out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants.

ISRAELI and Palestinian officials floated a ceasefire yesterday to end an upsurge of violence in Gaza, as Israel warned of a still stronger response if rocket fire from the coastal strip continues.

ISRAELI Defence Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that he was leaving the Labour Party and forming a new faction in parliament, completing a split in the party over the handling of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said today that he was leaving the Labour Party and forming a new faction in parliament, completing a split in the party over the handling of peace talks with the Palestinians.

ISRAEL would be allowed to finish hundreds of apartments already under construction in West Bank settlements, even if it agrees to a US-drafted deal to renew a freeze on new construction, a diplomat familiar with the details said yesterday.

ISRAEL’S defence minister says a slowdown in West Bank settlement construction is unlikely to continue in its current form after it expires at the end of this month.

Scores of Hamas members were arrested in sweeps by Palestinian security throughout the West Bank overnight after the shooting of four Israelis on the eve of new Middle East peace talks.

Israel’s defence minister said the government’s decision to send troops to stop a Turkish aid ship trying to breach Israel’s Gaza blockade was correct despite the ensuing bloodshed on board.

ISRAEL’S defence minister, Ehud Barak, met Turkey’s foreign minister yesterday to try to repair ties between the allies that were further strained this week by a diplomatic row in which Israel was forced to apologise for its treatment of the Turkish ambassador.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak met Turkey’s foreign minister today to try to repair ties between the allies that were further strained this week by a diplomatic row in which Israel was forced to apologise for its treatment of the Turkish ambassador.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an immediate resumption of peace talks with Palestinians and pledged more steps to improve economic conditions in Palestinian areas.

THE United States launched a fresh drive yesterday to restart Middle East peace talks, sending senior officials to theregion to deal with issues ranging from Jewish settlements to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting in Paris with the top US Mideast envoy has been called off in an apparent sign of growing friction over President Barack Obama’s call for a halt to construction in Jewish settlements.

US ENVOY George Mitchell began a new swing through the Mideast yesterday with a call for a rapid resumption of peace talks, as the White House tried to push Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel will continue to build homes in existing West Bank settlements, defying US calls to halt settlement growth.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head into his first visit with President Barack Obama today worried by US overtures to Iran and Syria and under pressure to support a Palestinian state.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu may endorse a Palestinian state when he meets US president Barack Obama in Washington tomorrow, a minister said.

ISRAEL’S Labor Party voted last night to join the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu, lending a moderate voice to a coalition dominated by hard liners and easing concerns of a head-on confrontation with Washington over Middle East peacemaking.

Israel’s Labour party leader Ehud Barak today rejected Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to join his government.

Gaza’s fragile ceasefire was broken today when an Israeli soldier was killed by a bomb.

The United Nations Gaza HQ was set on fire by an Israeli bombardment today as the organisation’s chief Ban Ki-moon was in the area on a peacemaking mission.

Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early today, bisecting the coastal territory and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas gained momentum.

Israel, under international pressure, is considering a 48-hour halt to its punishing four-day air campaign on Hamas targets in Gaza to see if Palestinian militants will stop their rocket attacks on southern Israel, Israeli officials said.

ISRAEL obliterated symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what the defence minister described yesterday as a “war to the bitter end,” striking next to the Hamas premier’s home, and devastating a security compound and a university building.

Israel today warned the people of Gaza that its attacks which have so far killed more than 300 were a "war to the bitter end".

Israel has called up thousands of reserve soldiers for a possible ground invasion as it widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

GAZA’S deeply entrenched Hamas rulers won’t be easily toppled, even by Israel’s unprecedented bombings on Saturday that killed more than 280 people, most of them men in Hamas uniform.

Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from Gaza pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of air strikes today, killing at least 155 and wounding more than 310 in the bloodiest day in Gaza in decades.

Israeli leaders have been discussing a comprehensive Saudi peace plan and debating how to respond to it, Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak said today.

Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak has not ruled out replacing Ehud Olmert as the country’s prime minister.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama promised today he would preserve the close relationship between the US and Israel.

Iran test-fired more long-range missiles in a second round of exercises meant to show that the country can defend itself against any attack by the US or Israel, Iranian state television reported today.

Israeli premier Ehud Olmert, mired in corruption claims, was warned to step down or face being forced from office today.

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

Israeli ground troops pulled out of northern Gaza before daybreak today, following the first extended sweep in their offensive against Palestinian rocket salvos that has left more than 100 dead and led the Palestinian president to call off US-sponsored peace talks.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak indicated Israel might try to overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza while Hamas leaders went into hiding after Israel threatened to hunt them down in the battle over daily rocket salvos from Gaza.

NADAV COHEN (Letters, February 1), in his riposte to your editorial (‘Aggression will not end this insanity’, January 22), states dismissively that only “some lessons can be learned from the success of the Northern peace process”.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak today said he would not quit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government over its handling of the 2006 Lebanon war – but would stay on to redress problems in the military that the fighting exposed.

Prime minister Ehud Olmert convened his top ministers today to discuss Israel’s response to the latest wave of Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.