Israel will not participate in indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas for now and instead plans to scale back its 26-day military operation in Gaza on its own terms, according to officials and media reports.

Israel has agreed to extend a 12-hour humanitarian truce in the Gaza war by four hours, a Cabinet minister said.

The Israeli military continues to strike Palestinian targets across the Gaza Strip amidst threats of a broad ground offensive.

Israel has harshly criticised the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran, accusing the world of “self-delusion” and saying the first-stage agreement would not halt Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

The Israeli government admitted it had become the victim of a mass cyber-warfare campaign with millions of attempts to hack state websites since the start of its Gaza offensive last week.

Israel’s central bank chief has applied to head the International Monetary Fund, the country’s finance minister said today.

Israel’s finance minister, under attack over rising prices, is in hospital after “feeling ill” overnight, medics said today.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development today accepted Israel into its ranks, capping a lengthy effort by the Jewish state to join the exclusive club in the face of stiff opposition from Palestinians.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired three home-made rockets into Israel today, hours after Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert pledged to push forward with airstrikes against the militants despite a recent string of civilian casualties.

A prominent Israeli politician has called for troops to mount a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip, after Palestinians there fired a fresh round of rockets at nearby Israeli targets this morning.

ISRAELI officials convened emergency meetings yesterday to decide how to respond to the militant Hamas group’s upset victory in Palestinian elections, maintaining an outward silence while privately blaming each other for the upheaval.

Israel returned to politics today while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was improving, but still comatose in a hospital a week after a massive stroke.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is embarking on the first ever visit by a Kremlin leader to the Jewish state in an historic bid to cement improving relations after decades of Soviet-era strain.

The United States is handling the case of two Arab residents of Jerusalem who were kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents, Israeli officials said in Jerusalem.

Erroneous Israeli warnings about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction ahead of last year’s US-led invasion were based on speculation, not fact, parliamentary investigators said today.

The daughter of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was admitted to hospital last night after being told that the jailed killer is to be married.