Israel lifted months of censorship on a military espionage case today confirming the arrest of a former woman soldier charged with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper.

Hundreds of people holed up today at a Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank, laying barbed wire and cement blocks as they vowed to prevent its evacuation.

A Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three car bombings targeting Israeli tourists, Egyptian security officials said today.

ISRAEL declared its hospitals off-limits yesterday to the 2,800 Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, saying they could be treated in makeshift facilities behind bars if taken ill.

Two Israel Cabinet ministers and their families have fled their homes after security services told them of plans by Palestinian militants to attack them.