Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo on Wednesday to seek a common position in response to Israeli attacks which have killed more than 370 people in Gaza. Pressure has been mounting on Arab leaders to act decisively to stop Israel's five-day old military operation in Gaza.
The Arab world is deeply divided in its attitude towards the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza and is the main target of the Israeli assault.

There have been demonstrations throughout Israel to protest the operation in Gaza -- mainly near arab areas in Haifa, Teybeh, Tira, Qalansuwa and Jaljulia. On HaGefen street in Haifa , some four hundred residents -- both arabs and Jews are demonstrating. In the arab village of Furadis, some three hundred residents are protesting the Gaza operation.

The United Nations Security Council Sunday called for an immediate halt to all violence in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing Israeli air strikes that have killed more than 270 people in Gaza. The Israeli assault followed days of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel by militants in Gaza. VOA's Purnell Murdock reports.

Israel is pulling tanks and infantry reinforcements close to Gaza in preparation for a possible attack on Hamas militants, Israel's Ynet web portal and the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.

The Knesset marked Monday the 13th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Rabin was murdered as part of a campaign of incitement that many took part in. He said that truth will require Israel to give up large parts of Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan.

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."