Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon underwent additional tests and evaluations in a Jerusalem hospital today after suffering a mild stroke.

Israel will not move forward in the US-backed road map peace plan if Hamas participates in Palestinian legislative elections without disarming, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today.

PALESTINIAN militant groups agreed yesterday to a truce with Israel until the end of this year on condition that Israel halts violence against Palestinians and frees prisoners.

With their flags whipping in the wind, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met face-to-face today to announce an end to four years of violence and offer goodwill gestures they hope will start a new era of peace talks.

Israel’s parliament moved to give generous compensation packages to 8,800 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank for leaving their homes, in a boost for prime minister Ariel Sharon’s fight to withdraw from Gaza after nearly 40 years of occupation.

Israeli forces destroyed two five-story apartment buildings in a Gaza refugee camp early today after evacuating thousands of Palestinians from a neighbourhood, residents and the military said.

Palestinian factions have failed to unite behind a comprehensive truce offer to Israel after militants refused to agree to it at a meeting in Cairo.

PALESTINIAN President Yasser Arafat declared a commitment to reaching a total cease-fire with Israel in a letter given to envoys of the peacemaking “Quartet,” Palestinian officials said yesterday.

Israel today signalled both reluctant acquiescence and disapproval of the Palestinians’ candidate for prime minister.

Yasser Arafat has appealed to Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis – and his newly-appointed security adviser urged Washington to restrain Israel – in a bid to give the US-backed peace plan another chance.

Israeli warplanes attacked suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon today, hours after Hezbollah militants shelled an Israeli town, killing a 16-year-old boy and lightly injuring five others, including a baby.

Israel targeted a Hamas leader in a failed assassination bid that intensified violence and infuriated Israel’s partners in a US-backed peace plan, clearly in trouble just a week after being launched.

A HINT of flexibility by US President George W Bush yesterday allowed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to accept the road map to Palestinian statehood.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced today that he is prepared to “accept the steps prescribed” in the road map peace plan that will lead to a Palestinian state and he would present it to his Cabinet for approval.

A HAMAS suicide bomber blew himself up in a Jerusalem bus yesterday, killing seven passengers and prompting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to call off a Washington trip seen as crucial for getting a new Mideast peace plan off the ground.

PALESTINIANS warned yesterday of a "dangerous escalation" of tensions if Israel stops Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem.

Four schoolchildren were among 11 Israeli’s killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a packed bus in Jerusalem today.

ISRAEL’S defence minister has ordered a speedy investigation into recent killings of Palestinians, including at least eight civilians, by army fire, his office said yesterday.

NEARLY 200 al-Qaida operatives, including several senior commanders, have settled in Lebanon with Syria’s permission, taking refuge in a large Palestinian refugee camp there, an Israeli newspaper reported on Monday.

ISRAEL is urging US officials not to delay a military strike against Iraq's Saddam Hussein, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday.

Israel is urging President Bush not to delay a military strike against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today.

Israel transferred €15.34m in tax revenues to the impoverished Palestinian Authority today in a move meant to ease economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials, faced with an international outcry and a definitive ruling by the attorney general, have admitted that they cannot legally deport relatives of suicide bombers unless they are directly linked to attacks.

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in an Israeli hotel dining room today killing at least 15 people and wounding a more than 100 others.

Despite US pressure to enable Yasser Arafat to join this week’s crucial Arab summit, Israel will not lift the travel ban on the Palestinian leader unless he takes decisive steps against militants, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today.

Israeli tanks and troops entered Gaza in two places early today, killing four Palestinians, witnesses and doctors said, while both sides indicated changes in tactics, moving toward guerrilla warfare.

Israel says it will only allow Yasser Arafat to attend Christmas Mass in Bethlehem if he arrests the assassins of an Israeli Cabinet minister today.

Israeli troops are set to withdraw from areas around the West Bank city of Qalqilya today, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday.

Israeli forces began redeploying from two West Bank towns tonight, hours after Palestinian gunmen raked a bus stop in northern Israel with automatic gunfire, killing four people, a Government official said.

Israel said tonight it had suspended a planned withdrawal from two West Bank towns after Palestinian gunmen fired on its soldiers.

Israel today accepted a US ceasefire proposal aimed at ending eight months of fighting with the Palestinians but appears to have little confidence in its success.

The fate of a ceasefire proposal drawn up by CIA director George Tenet lies in the hands of the Palestinians, says a leading Israeli.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has serious reservations about an Arab proposal for restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but has not rejected it outright, an adviser said today.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, long a harsh critic of Yasser Arafat, sent his son to meet the Palestinian leader this week as part of efforts to work out an end to Mideast violence.

Israeli prime minister-elect Ariel Sharon has spoken for the first time since his election to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.