A car bomb has killed one of Israel’s most prominent crime bosses in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reports.
Israeli police identified the dead man on Monday as Yaakov Alperon, the head of one of the country’s most powerful crime families.
Alperon is the most senior figure to be killed and the latest casualty of ongoing gang wars that have left scores of people dead.

Shimon Peres is the ninth President of the State of Israel.

The UN in the Gaza Strip says it will run out of food aid in two days unless Israel’s blockade – which it describes as “shameful and unacceptable” – eases.
The UN refugee agency Unrwa, which distributes food to half of Gaza’s 1,5m people, called the blockade “a physical as well as a mental punishment”.
Israel is now allowing a limited amount of fuel across the border, but it is still blocking food deliveries.
It says it tightened sanctions because of rocket attacks by militants.
The Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, said …

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli aircraft fired missiles at militants in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday and Palestinians sent rocket barrages flying into Israel, officials said, as newly resumed violence threatened to bury a five-month-old truce.
The renewed rocket fire from Gaza prompted Israel to seal its crossings with the territory, halting shipments of food aid and fuel.

Israeli President Shimon Peres has praised the king of Saudi Arabia for his Middle East peace initiative.
At an interfaith meeting at the United Nations, Mr Peres told King Abdullah he hoped his would be the “prevailing voice of the whole region”.
The Saudi plan, proposed in 2002, calls for Israel to withdraw from occupied land in exchange for Arab recognition.
King Abdullah organised the two-day conference in New York to promote a dialogue on religion and culture.

Citizens in the Gaza Strip are bracing for more electricity blackouts after Israel cut off fuel shipments to the territory’s only power plant.
Israel has closed crossings into Gaza, making it likely that electricity would be completely cut off in the territory from about 1600 GMT, Palestinian officials said.
Israel’s defence ministry closed the crossings on Sunday after Palestinian fighters fired rockets into southern Israel. No one was hurt in the attack.

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt – Israeli, Palestinian and international negotiators pledged Sunday to continue peace talks launched last year by President Bush, even though the quest for peace will certainly outlast his administration.
But future talks will be held in an increasingly uncertain terrain, with the prospect of a hawk coming to power in Israel’s February parliamentary elections and deeply divided Palestinian factions controlling the West Bank and Gaza. It is also unclear how high Mideast peacemaking will figure on Barack Obama’s agenda.

JERUSALEM (CNN) — The Israeli army said Saturday it is investigating a video that appears to show Israeli soldiers taunting a blindfolded Palestinian man.
Israel’s Channel 10 broadcast the video this week and said soldiers had uploaded it to YouTube.
The footage shows a blindfolded man kneeling with what appear to be Israelis in green army uniforms standing behind him. The people in uniform force the man to repeat what they say in Hebrew while they laugh at him.

Two brothers seized in Lebanon are accused of a role in the death of a Hezbollah chief. Two brothers held in Lebanon as Israeli spies are linked to a team responsible for the assassination of a notorious terrorist leader, Lebanese security sources have claimed.
Ali Jarrah, 50, a Lebanese citizen, and his brother Youssef, from Marj in the Bekaa valley, were arrested last week by the Lebanese army, which charged them with espionage. A third suspect has also been held, sources close to the investigation said. All three face the death …

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers scrambled Wednesday to contain fallout from the worst fighting since a truce was declared five months ago, but a flare-up later in the day threatened to unravel it anew.
Gaza militants pounded southern Israel early Wednesday with dozens of rockets to avenge raids a day earlier that killed six militants, but the guns quickly fell silent with neither side appearing to have much to gain from renewed hostilities.