Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his ministers to stop holding meetings and talks with their Palestinian counterparts, a government official said.

President Barack Obama lent his weight to a fresh American initiative to hammer out a Middle East peace deal within nine months, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Israeli and Palestinian teams are heading to Washington DC for preliminary talks toward a formal reopening of negotiations after years of stalemate, but both sides are emphasising that many obstacles stand between them and a final deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed a coalition deal with rival parties to form the next government in an agreement that was stalled for weeks due to tough negotiations.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a deal with a major political party to form the next government, the party said today.

Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to stay on as prime minister but in a weakened position after the Israeli elections.

Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised for re-election as Israel’s Prime Minister because of the failure of his opponents to unite behind a viable candidate against him .

Israel’s former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, is returning to politics and will be heading a new party, her aide said today.

ISRAEL insisted yesterday it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.

An Israeli military delegation called off a visit to Britain today fearing they could face possible war crimes charges.

ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave no ground on peace with the Palestinians in a speech yesterday, reasserting they must recognise Israel as a Jewish state if they wanted a deal for a state of their own.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today vowed never to allow Israeli leaders or soldiers to stand trial for war crimes over their actions during last winter’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, furiously denouncing a recent UN report in a keynote address to parliament.

Hundreds of police officers scoured the streets of Tel Aviv today in a manhunt for a gunman who shot and killed two people at a youth club in the worst ever attack on homosexuals in Israel.

An axe-wielding Palestinian went on the rampage in a West Bank settlement today killing a 13-year-old Israeli boy before fleeing.

PRIME minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party has initiated a coalition agreement with an ultra-nationalist faction that brings its leader significantly closer to becoming foreign minister, a Likud party spokeswoman said yesterday.

The leader of an ultra-nationalist splinter group took a step closer to becoming Israel’s foreign minister today.

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party signed a coalition agreement with the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu faction, naming its leader, Avigdor Lieberman, as the incoming foreign minister, Israeli media reported early today.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is using her second overseas trip to assess Mideast peace prospects, reconnect with European allies and remind her Russian counterpart that US efforts to rebuild relations with Moscow have their limits.

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

Israel’s hardline prime minister designate, Benjamin Netanyahu will meet the head of the dovish Labour Party today after failing to tempt centrist leader Tzipi Livni into a broad, moderate, coalition government.

Hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was today chosen to form a new Israeli government.

FAR-RIGHT politician Avigdor Lieberman endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for Israeli prime minister yesterday, all but guaranteeing that the US-educated hawk will be the country’s next leader.

Israel today ruled out any Gaza peace deal until Hamas Islamic militants release a soldier captured three years ago.

ISRAELI president Shimon Peres will hold talks with party leaders today before deciding whom he should ask to form a new government after an indecisive election, a statement released last night said.

Final results in Israel's election tonight give the moderate Kadima Party one more seat in the new parliament than Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.

Moderate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Israel’s governing Kadima Party declared victory in a tight race with hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two front-runners in the race to rule Israel urged voters to head to the polls today to tip the scales in a surprisingly tight general election.

ISRAEL’S national election is likely to be a cliffhanger, pollsters said yesterday, on the eve of a vote in which right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party had been forecast to emerge victorious.

Israel looks set to elect a new hardline government in elections tomorrow.

A long-range rocket from Gaza landed in an Israeli city today, police said.

Gaza militants launched two rockets into southern Israel early today, further straining a ceasefire that ended Israel's Gaza offensive two weeks ago.

EU FOREIGN ministers were questioning the point of rebuilding infrastructure in Gaza they had rebuilt several times in the past, during a special meeting attended by the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.

Israel implemented a unilateral ceasefire early today in its 22-day offensive that turned Gaza neighbourhoods into battlegrounds and dealt a stinging blow to the Islamic militants of Hamas.

Israeli forces pounded dozens of Hamas targets early today as the army kept up pressure on the Islamic militant group ahead of a crucial vote on whether to end Israel’s punishing three-week-long campaign against Gaza’s rulers.

Israel today announced it was close to ending the bloody fighting it began three weeks ago in Gaza Strip.

Top Israeli diplomats were heading for Egypt and the United States today in what appeared to be a final push toward a ceasefire to end Israel’s punishing Gaza offensive against Hamas militants.

Israeli forces pounded Gaza from air, land and sea today as a stream of diplomats headed for the region hoping to end the violence.

Israel has been standing by its claims that the air strikes in Gaza have been surgical and that any claims to the contrary are an attempt by Hamas to manipulate the media.

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 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.

Israeli warplanes pressing one of Israel’s deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants widened their sights today, dropping bombs on smuggling tunnels that are a major weapons pipeline for the Gaza Strip’s Islamic Hamas rulers.

Israeli warplanes blasted targets all over Gaza early today, including a mosque and a TV station, after a day of intensive airstrikes that killed more than 200 Palestinians.

Nearly two hundred people are feared dead in Gaza as the region enters a new era of violence.

ISRAELI opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday pledged to continue negotiations with the Palestinians if he wins February elections, backing away from earlier hints he would abandon peace talks.