Tel Aviv - Israel on Saturday marks the 1,000 days of captivity of its soldier Gilad Shalit, held in Gaza by the armed wing of the radical Islamist Hamas movement.

Shalit's family is to commemorate the date with a mass rally in Jerusalem on Saturday evening. After that they plan to abandon the protest camp they have set up outside the official residence of outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Tel Aviv  - Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav was indicted in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court Thursday on charges of rape and indecent assault against a complainant who previously worked for him while he was Israel's minister for tourism.

He was also charged with sexual harassment against an employee who worked at the president's residence during tenure.

The charges span Katsav's time at the tourism ministry between 1996 and 1999, and his term as president between 2000 and 2007.

Tel Aviv - Israeli troops who fought in the recent offensive in the Gaza Strip killed Palestinians under permissive rules of engagement and destroyed their property, according to soldiers who participated in the fighting.

The accounts include reports of shooting at people known to be non-combatants, evacuating families to zones which the military had defined as no-entry zones and therefore would open fire at any person entering, acts of vandalism and abuse of humanitarian aid.

Tel Aviv - Israel plans to increase its pressure on Hamas after indirect negotiations broke down on a prisoners exchange with the radical Islamist movement ruling Gaza, Israeli media reported Wednesday.

Outgoing Premier Ehud Olmert has formed a ministerial committee which will look into how Israel can legally worsen the conditions in which Hamas prisoners are being held.

Tel Aviv - It could all be so easy in the Middle East. That, in short, is the message by songstresses Noa and Mira Awad, Israel's entry for the annual Eurovision Song Contest in May.

"What is possible between two people must be possible between two peoples," remarked Noa on Tuesday in Tel Aviv. A descendant of Yemenite Jews, she has been collaborating artistically for eight years with Awad, a Christian Arab who has become a close friend. "We want complete peace between Israelis and Palestinians," Noa said.

Tel Aviv - The Jewish-Arab duo picked to represent Israel at May's Eurovision Song Contest said on Tuesday they wanted to see a peaceful settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.

"We want our cooperation to show the way forward," the pair said at a press conference in Tel Aviv, ahead of the contest in Moscow. "This is our task."

One singer, Noa, is Jewish while the other, Mira Awad, is a Christian Arab, and the duo will sing their self-penned song There Must Be Another Way.