Tel Aviv  - Her Kadima party may have won the most seats in Israel's February 10 election, but as the Israeli government is sworn in, Tzipi Livni finds herself the big loser, moving from the high- profile foreign ministry to the opposition front bench in parliament.

At least for the short term.

Tel Aviv  - New Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have achieved his aim of forming a broad-based unity coalition, but this does not guarantee him a premiership free of challenges.

Coalition requirements forced him to form a government with 30 ministers - so large that ministries had to be split to accommodate all the demands from various partners.

This, in turn, led to huge dissatisfaction inside his own right- wing Likud party, with senior legislators unhappy that the top cabinet posts were parceled out to coalition partners.

Tel Aviv - Israel's military Advocate General has closed a probe into reports that soldiers taking part in Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip intentionally killed civilians, after he found the claims "were based on hearsay and not supported by specific personal knowledge."

"It was found that once the claims were checked, they were not supported by the facts as determined by the investigation," an Israel Defence Force(IDF) statement released Monday afternoon said.

Tel Aviv  - More than two months after its 22-day offensive in Gaza, Israel and the Palestinians continued Friday to argue over the total number of Palestinian deaths and over civilians killed in the war.

The Israeli military overnight published its own casualty figures of the offensive, saying at least 60 per cent of the total Palestinian dead were militants.

In a statement sent to the media it said that 1,166 Palestinians died in the offensive, adding it had collected their names and that 709 of them were militants.

Tel Aviv - Israel has successfully tested a new rocket defence system, designed to protect its citizens against attacks from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, media reports said Thursday.

The system, named "Iron Dome," could be operational within a year, a statement from the Defence Ministry said.

The government had budgeted in February 2008 for the rocket defence system, which is to be primarily deployed in the western Negev desert region to protect the town of Sderot bordering on the Gaza Strip.

Tel Aviv  - Another right-wing party joined the coalition of Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday evening, Israel Radio reported.

Netanyahu's hardline, but mainstream Likud party signed a coalition agreement with the pro-settler Jewish Home faction.

The party has three seats in the 120-seat Knesset, meaning Netanyahu now has a majority of 69 lawmakers in the Israeli parliament.

The Jewish Home will receive the science portfolio, the radio said.