JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel said on Friday it will maintain its closure of the Gaza Strip despite international concern over a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the aid-dependent Palestinian territory.
“This decision was taken because of the continuation of Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel,” said Peter Lerner, a defence ministry spokesman.
A rocket fired from Gaza exploded near the port city of Ashkelon early on Friday without causing casualties or damage, army radio said.

Israel’s prime minister says the five-month truce with Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been “shattered” following 13 days of tit-for-tat attacks.
Ehud Olmert told an Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday that he had ordered security chiefs to draw up plans to end rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel, news agency AFP reported.
Olmert made the remarks shortly after four Palestinian fighters from the Popular Resistance Committees were killed in an Israeli air attack in northern Gaza.

Occupied Jerusalem: Jordan’s King Abdullah asked Israeli leaders at a secret meeting in Amman this week to refrain from a large-scale incursion into the Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source said on Thursday.
The source, confirming Israeli radio stations’ reports, said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declined to give a guarantee, saying Israel “cannot restrain itself for long” and might invade Gaza if fighters continued firing rockets into Israel.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel stood fast Wednesday by its decision to clamp shut cargo crossings at the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
Israel sealed the passages two weeks ago after a 5-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza militants started unraveling in an effort to halt rocket and mortar fire at Israeli border towns.

An Israeli air strike killed four militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he had commissioned a plan for military action in the Hamas-run territory should rocket attacks on Israel persist. “I ordered security chiefs to present their proposals to me as soon as possible so that an orderly plan of action could, if necessary, be brought to the decision-makers in the government for approval,” Olmert told his cabinet, in broadcast remarks.

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Jewish settlers say they are ready to fight U.S.-trained, Palestinian security forces who are being sent to the tense West Bank city of Hebron.
Fear of a showdown if the armed Palestinians move into the center, where a hard core of sometimes violent settlers lives, makes the deployment the biggest test yet for a U.S. plan to build up the force, seen as vital in persuading Israel it can end its occupation without compromising its own security.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants to resume indirect peace negotiations with Syria, his spokesman has said.
Four rounds of talks were held earlier this year, through Turkish mediators, but were suspended when Mr Olmert resigned over corruption allegations.
Mr Olmert is expected to remain caretaker prime minister until after elections due in February.

Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul is in Israel for a two-day visit, the focus of which is to examine a batch of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that Turkey is slated to acquire, Turkish officials said.
According to Turkish media reports, last year Turkey began operating the medium-altitude Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit-made Heron UAVs over northern Iraq, home to scores of Kurdish rebel bases.

The Israeli attorney general has called for an investigation into murderous incitement by settlers against Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli media.
“We hope… they will all be killed… because this is what they deserve,” an unnamed settler told Army Radio.
The comments came amid rioting in which Muslim graves were desecrated after the army removed an illegal outpost near Hebron in the West Bank on Saturday.