Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian militants in the south-eastern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel Friday, killing one and injuring at least two others, witnesses said.

The gunmen clashing with the Israeli soldiers north-east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis were members of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees faction, Palestinian media reports said.

Palestinian militants responded by firing three mortar shells into Israel.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was checking the report.

Tel Aviv  - A number of Israelis are being held hostage in a Jewish center in Mumbai seized by the gunmen who carried out a series of highly coordinated attacks in the Indian financial hub, Israel's Foreign Ministry confirmed Thursday.

The ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch center, along with the high- profile Taj and Trident hotels, is one of three buildings in Mumbai where gunmen still appear to be held up.

"We know that there are Israelis, certainly in the Chabad centre and very probably in the Trident hotel," Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

Tel Aviv  - International media organizations stepped up their protest against Israel Thursday over its "unprecedented" refusal to allow foreign journalists to enter and cover the Gaza Strip for the past three weeks.

The entry ban is a "serious violation of freedom of press which runs counter to Israel's own claim that it is a democracy which respects press liberty," Steven Gutkin, the chairman of the Foreign Press Association (FPA), told a news conference in Tel Aviv.

Gaza/Tel Aviv - Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, said Friday his movement remained interested in its informal truce with Israel, which had held for nearly five months, but has been jeopardized by renewed violence over the past two weeks and more.

Tel Aviv - The hardline Likud party of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu has gained significantly against Israel's ruling centrist Kadima party and would win if elections were held today, according to two polls published Thursday.

Both polls, published by the Ha'aretz and Yediot Ahronot dailies, said the Likud had opened a lead of six mandates against Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Kadima.

The Ha'aretz poll predicted the Likud winning 34 mandates in the 120-seat Knesset, against 28 mandates for Kadima, while the Yediot poll indicated the Likud would get 32 mandates against 26 for Kadima.

Tel Aviv  - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak paid a secret visit to Jordan Tuesday, where King Abdullah asked them to avoid green-lighting an Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

Quoting a "senior diplomatic official" in Jerusalem, the radio said Abdullah told the two that any Israeli action in the Strip could snowball into instability in Jordan, many of whose citizens are Palestinians or of Palestinian origin.

According to Israel Army Radio, Olmert and Barak told the Hashemite monarch that Israel could not sit back for long while Gaza militants continued to fire missiles and mortars at southern Israel.