Tel Aviv  - The Likud, the hardline opposition party currently leading in opinion polls to win the February 10 Israeli election, announced the official results of its primary early Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv.

Likud caucus leader Gideon Sa'ar won the second spot on the party's list of parliamentary candidates, after hawkish former premier Benyamin Netanyahu, whose place as number one had already been secured in a separate contest for the party's leadership in late 2005.

An extreme-right activist, Moshe Feiglin, who Netanyahu had hoped would not make it to a ranking spot, came in at 20th place, giving him a good chance of making it into Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

Tel Aviv  - The Likud, the hardline opposition party currently leading in opinion polls to win the February 10 Israeli election, announced the official results of its primary early Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv.

Likud caucus leader Gideon Sa'ar won the second spot on the party's list of parliamentary candidates, after hawkish former premier Benyamin Netanyahu, whose place as number one had already been secured in a separate contest for the party's leadership in late 2005.

An extreme-right activist, Moshe Feiglin, who Netanyahu had hoped would not make it to a ranking spot, came in at 20th place, giving him a good chance of making it into Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

Tel Aviv - Israel Thursday opened the Gaza Strip to foreign journalists and aid workers, after preventing them from entering the salient for four weeks.

A Palestinian official said Israel also opened a cargo crossing into the Strip to allow delivery of limited amounts of vital aid.

"The Israeli side told us that Kerem Shalom crossing would open Thursday for 40 trucks with food, aid and medical supplies," Nasser al-Sarraj, a Palestinian ministry of economy official, said.

Israel banned foreign journalists from entering the Strip as a fragile truce with Palestinian militants began falling apart.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that a house in Hebron currently occupied by radical settlers would be evacuated and handed over to the army, until its ownership was decided by the courts.

The minister spoke after meeting in Tel Aviv with settler leaders, in an attempt to reach a deal on evacuating the building. According to Israeli media, the settlers asked Barak to delay the evacuation, and work to expedite a court hearing on the ownership of the house.

Tel Aviv, Dec. 4 : Israel''s Defence Forces (IDF) are reportedly bracing themselves up for a possibel strike on Iranian nuclear facilities with or without US coordination.

According to a Jerusalem Post report, Israel has said that its first preference would be to coordinate with the US, but if this does seem feasible, a host of other options are being considered actively.

Tel Aviv/Hebron - A violent stand-off between radical Israelis and Palestinians in Hebron elicited a storm of criticism in the Israeli media Wednesday, with most commentators calling for the settlers to be removed from a disputed house in the divided West Bank city.

More than two weeks of heightened tensions in Hebron boiled over Tuesday, when dozens of settlers rioted, throwing stones at Palestinians and at Israeli police and soldiers, spray-painting slogans and damaging graves.

Local Palestinians also hurled stones at the settlers, seriously injuring an Israeli teenager who was hit in the head.