Jerusalem

Israeli police were on Wednesday placed on alert for possible Palestinian attacks after militant groups called for a resumption of suicide bombings inside the Jewish state, a police spokesperson said. ”Our forces have been placed on an advance state of alert across Israeli territory following events in the Gaza Strip,” saud Micky Rosenfeld.

Thousands of gay Israelis are to rally in Jerusalem on Friday, defying the risk of violence from religious hard-liners outraged by what they brand an abomination to the sanctity of the Holy City. Ultra-Orthodox Jews have staged nightly violent protests, aiming to force the cancellation of an already twice-delayed event.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was taken on Friday to an intensive-care unit after his overall condition and heart function deteriorated, a hospital spokesperson said. Sharon, who has been in a coma since suffering a major stroke in January, contracted a new infection that affected his heart, the spokesperson said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Monday that the army is preparing an extensive operation in the Gaza Strip, with the government to make a decision on the offensive in days, an MP said. ”The army is preparing for an even more extensive operation in the Gaza Strip,” the prime minister was quoted by the source as telling Parliament’s defence and foreign affairs committee.

Israel may soon use ”smart” bombs on the narrow border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian territory, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday. Maariv said weapons would be used to penetrate deep underground in the hope of destroying the tunnel network that Israel says riddles the narrow border area.

Israel accused Syria on Monday of continuing to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in violation of a United Nations-backed ceasefire and said it might take military action if the shipments didn’t stop. ”We view this with great severity,” Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz told a parliamentary panel, according to a legislative spokesperson.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, said on Wednesday that attempts to form a coalition government with the ruling Hamas movement had failed despite a mounting economic and security crisis. A joint programme agreed between his Fatah movement and Hamas last month had collapsed.

A car exploded in a town south of the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one person and wounding six others, Israeli rescue and ambulance services said. The Israeli police said the explosion was a criminal act and was not a politically motivated bombing. ”I can confirm the background to the attack was criminal,” police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said.

Israel intends to complete a troop withdrawal from Lebanon by the weekend, Defence Minister Amir Peretz said on Wednesday. ”This is our intent, we definitely want to complete it,” Peretz said when asked by reporters about comments on Tuesday by army chief Dan Halutz that Israeli forces would quit Lebanon by the Jewish New Year

A stray dog which refused to budge from the home of a recently deceased rabbi has finally moved on after a ”redemption ceremony” at an Israeli cemetery. The dog, pictured in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Monday, showed up at the house of the late Rabbi Nahman Dubinky.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav was grilled by police on Wednesday for a fifth time over allegations of sexual harassment in a mounting scandal that threatens to end his career. Katsav was questioned by police investigators for five hours at his Jerusalem residence, police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will urge Israel to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon and discuss the deployment of UN peacekeepers when he meets Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday. Annan, in Jerusalem after visiting Lebanon, is trying to strengthen a two-week-old truce that ended a 34-day war between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav dismissed calls to step down over accusations of sexual harassment on Friday as he protested his innocence in his first public comments after two days of police questioning. In an interview with public radio, the head of state denied allegations that he harassed a female former employee and took bribes in exchange for pardoning criminals.

Sixty-three percent of Israelis want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign in a sharp public backlash over his handling of the war in Lebanon, a newspaper poll showed on Friday. The Yedioth Aronoth, Israel’s biggest circulation newspaper, called the poll a political ”earthquake” for the Olmert government.

Investigators seized computers and documents from Israeli President Moshe Katsav’s residence and will question him about allegations that he coerced a former employee into having sex with him, the police said on Tuesday. Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said investigators visited Katsav’s Jerusalem residence on Monday.

Israeli public support for the war on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon has been so overwhelming it has become hard to tell the doves from the hawks in the Jewish state’s fractious society.

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press Israel and Lebanon on Sunday to strike a deal on an international force to end a 19-day-old war, after Hezbollah threatened to strike deeper into Israel. Rice said she hoped for agreement on terms for a ceasefire to be outlined in a United Nations resolution that could be tabled as early as Tuesday.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was taken to a hospital emergency room on Wednesday after his health worsened, a hospital spokesperson said. Sharon has been in a coma since January. The Sheba hospital near Tel Aviv said Sharon was taken to an emergency care unit to drain fluids in his body.

Israeli forces battled to take over a second Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon on Tuesday in intensifying ground clashes with the guerrillas’ frontier garrison, sources on both sides said. Calling Bint Jbeil ”one of the major Hezbollah centres”, an Israeli military spokesperson said tanks and troops had sealed off the town.

A rocket fired from Lebanon smashed into a three-storey residential building in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Monday, wounding at least two people, but it appeared no one was trapped under debris, medics said. The rocket tore the front off the building, crushing cars underneath.

Israel could be prepared to free some Palestinian prisoners if militants first release a soldier they seized last month, Interior Minister Roni Bar-On said on Monday. ”If the soldier is released, we could again consider a release of prisoners as we were doing before his abduction,” Bar-On told Israel’s private Channel 10 television network.

Israel is prepared to release Palestinian prisoners in order to free a soldier abducted by militants 12 days ago, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter was quoted as saying on Friday. ”Israel will release prisoners to free kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit,” Dichter told businesses executives in Tel Aviv, as reported by the online news site Ynet.