The army's statement did not identify who fired at the soldiers, nor if any enemy forces were wounded.

The request was rejected because Sharon still had three months left and 11 days to complete the training period as a Likud member, and he did not receive approval from PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli Security Cabinet approved the transfer of the money two days after halting it because of violence along the Israel-Gaza border.

Passage of the bill would put Ireland in breach of EU law and would open it up to legal action from the EU, including monetary fines that could cost Ireland millions of Euros, Coveney said.

Researchers at the Faculties of Biology and Computer Science at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have engineered a new drug that combines several different strains of antibiotics.

Rabbi Elbaz, a leader in the tshuva movement, was speaking in a close discussion.

In November, Israel allowed Qatar to begin a six-month cash infusion of some $90 million into Gaza.

"It felt like a bomb went off near the house," one resident said. People in Afula, Nazereth and Migdal Haemek in the North said they also heard loud explosions.