An Israeli soldier is seen shooting an arrested and bound Palestinian in the leg with a plastic bullet, in a video released by an Israeli human rights group.

By all accounts, the Israeli-Syrian indirect negotiations through Turkish mediation are going well, and the fact that a fourth round of talks is scheduled for the end of July suggests that both sides expect to make further progress. The reports from Damascus and Ankara, however, indicating that Syria will not enter into direct negotiations with Israel before the advent of new American administration show an obstructive apprehension on the part of the Syrian government.

PM's lawyers to cross-examine Talansky as the Police in Israel will question PM Ehud Olmert.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara says the last round of indirect talks between Israel and Syria will take place no later than two weeks from now, after which direct negotiations are to begin.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France says as long as the Middle East conflict is unresolved, it will continue to fuel world terror.

A police officer's apparent suicide has caused a security scare at a farewell for the French President in Israel.

Russia and Israel will be able to switch to a visa-free regime at the end of September, the Russian embassy in Israel said on Sunday.

An uneasy six-month truce between Israel and Palestinian militant factions in Gaza Strip led by Hamas came into force on Thursday amid widespread scepticism over how long the deal brokered by Egypt would hold.

Palestinian and Egyptian officials say Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas have reached a cease-fire agreement that will go into effect in Gaza on Thursday. Israel would not confirm the deal, but said a negotiator was rushing to Cairo to finalize details. Robert Berger at the VOA bureau in Jerusalem.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says the militant group and Israel may be close to signing a truce in the Gaza Strip.

The United States' top diplomat has arrived in the Middle East to try to give a boost to the peace process. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pushing for a peace agreement before President Bush leaves office in January.

Recent reports indicating that Israel and Syria are indirectly engaged in Turkish brokered peace talks suggest a major (albeit overdue) development in the Mid-East peace-making process. Since the collapse of the Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations in May 2000, I have consistently been advocating the need for Israeli-Syrian reconciliation specifically because there is not a single dispute in the region that is not affected in one form or another by this conflict.