Beirut - Five Lebanese soldiers were killed and 11 others wounded when their convoy was ambushed in eastern Lebanon, Army sources said Monday. Three soldiers died immediately in the ambush on an army convoy in the area of Riyak, in eastern Lebanon, while two others died later in a hospital from serious wounds, among them a major, army sources said.

Eleven others are still in hospital being treated for moderate wounds, hospital sources in the area said.

The Bekaa Valley has always been known to be the main production area of illegal drugs, mainly hashish.

Cairo  - Egypt's public prosecutor on Wednesday accused Hezbollah of sending operatives to Egypt to carry out attacks in the country and to smuggle weapons and money to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement released Wednesday evening Abdel-Magid Mohammed accused Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah of dispatching agents to Egypt during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza  - Leaders of the rival Hamas and Fatah movements held a meeting in Hamas-ruled Gaza on Wednesday to discuss reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and mutual reconciliation.

The meeting between the two movements' leaders is the first of its kind since Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 following weeks of bloodshed between the two groups' warring militants.

Four Fatah leaders, headed by Abdallah el-Ifranji arrived at the office of Hamas spokesman in Gaza Ayman Taha to hold talks with four Hamas leaders headed by senior Hamas leader Salah el-Bardawil.

Cairo  - A public prosecutor in Cairo on Wednesday accused Hezbollah of plotting attacks in Egypt, the Interior Ministry said.

Egypt's domestic intelligence agency, State Security Investigations, supplied the prosecutor with information indicating that leaders of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist group, sent members to Egypt to gather recruits for its organisation, a source in Egypt's Interior Ministry told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Jerusalem  - Israeli border policemen shot and fatally wounded an East Jerusalem Palestinian who tried to run them over during the demolition of a house in the village of Sur Bakher Tuesday afternoon.

The incident happened as border police and soldiers from the army's Home Front Command were destroying the home of a Sur Bakher resident who intentionally ran amok with a bulldozer and killed three people in West Jerusalem last July.

Tel Aviv  - Israel will seal off the West Bank from midnight Monday (2200 GMT) for the duration of the seven-day Passover festival, which begins Wednesday at sunset, the Israeli military said in a statement.

The closure will remain in effect until Saturday April 18, according to "security assessments," the statement said.