Israel's right-wing party leader Avigdor Lieberman quit the ruling coalition government today, saying he does not support negotiations with Palestinians that will result in Israeli giving up land it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem, Israeli air strikes continued to target Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, in a bid to stop militants from firing rockets at southern Israel.

If negotiations on an independent Palestinian state fail it will threaten Israel's very existence, the Israeli prime minister said.

A Palestinian was seriously wounded in the West Bank when President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces opened fire at a funeral for a man killed in a protest against Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, medics said.

Israel has authorized the supply of 25 armored vehicles to Palestinian security forces in the West Bank ahead of a Mideast peace conference, government officials said on Wednesday.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has renounced all previous agreements with Israel on drafting a joint statement to be adopted at the upcoming Annapolis peace summit, the Haaretz newspaper said.

The Turkish capital, Ankara, is hosting the Israeli and Palestinian presidents. The two leaders are meeting with their Turkish counterpart and the prime minister. The visit comes ahead of an expected peace summit in the United States.

Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, hopes that Syria would attend a U.S.-sponsored conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and says that progress toward resolving it as "doable."

An independent group of Palestinian and Israeli religious leaders, meeting in Washington, has launched an initiative to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group says it hopes to counter extremism by facilitating dialogue among the region's moderate voices.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is seeking to reach an agreement on key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a year, while President Bush is still in office, a top Israeli paper said Friday.

Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, has used a rare interview with the foreign media to attack American plans for a Middle East conference to be held later this year.

U.S. President George Bush meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York Monday, to discuss plans for a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference.

In Israel, tension overshadowed the first Friday prayers for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. The focal point of the latest tensions was the Al Aksa Mosque.