US President George W. Bush arrived in Israel late Wednesday morning, at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at dealing with both the threat posed by Iran, as well as advancing towards a Palestinian-Israeli permanent status agreement in the coming year.

US President George Bush will make his maiden visit to Middle East region next week to generate momentum in peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel has announced two new housing projects in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, continuing to expand its settlements. Officials have stated that a bill to be approved by parliament this week, would set aside $25 million for the expansion of development projects in Har Homa and Maale Adumim. The bill would create 500 apartments in the Har Homa area and another 240 in Maale Adumim.

Thousands of pilgrims joined local Palestinians in celebrating Christmas Eve in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. As Robert Berger reports for VOA from Bethlehem, the observances were more cheerful than in previous years.

Major powers and key donors meet in Paris on Monday for a conference aimed at raising billions of dollars to help the emergence of a viable Palestinian state and give political impetus to the newly relaunched peace process with Israel.

At least four Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, the violence is casting a shadow over efforts to revive the peace process.

Israel killed three Hamas fighters in two air strikes in the south of the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials and Palestinian medical staff said.

A near majority of Israelis consider this week's US-hosted peace conference in Annapolis to have been a failure, according to a poll published by the Haaretz daily.

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.

Bush Says Israelis, Palestinians Agree to Launch Negotiations to Seek Peace Agreement by End of 2008.

Israeli Defense Forces killed on Tuesday two Palestinian militants and a civilian in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military and Hamas sources said.