A security source from the Northern Israeli command warned 150 villages in southern Lebanon that the Jewish state would destroy “every house or building from where missiles are launched.”

Israel has evidence that Hizbullah is continuing to prepare for war, the official said.

Iran has smuggled more weapons to Hizbullah, Syria, and Palestinian groups in recent months, taking advantage of the wave of unrest in the Middle East, reported the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday.

Because international attention is focused mainly on regime changes and local intelligence services are busy protecting their rulers, the Iranians have been able to act with greater impunity, it said

U.S. Special Middle East Peace Envoy's assistant, Frederick Hoff, paid a quick visit to Beirut on Thursday during which he met with a delegation from the army command to discuss matters related to the Lebanese-Israeli maritime border and the security situation in southern Lebanon, reported the daily An Nahar Friday.

The military delegation informed him that Lebanon is entitled to demarcate its maritime border, and therefore it has no intention to relinquish this right, said As Safir on Friday.

Two Israeli tanks briefly entered a disputed border area with Lebanon on Thursday after the alert was sounded over people apparently picking herbs in the volatile zone, a Lebanese army spokesman said.

"The Merkava tanks entered a zone claimed by Lebanon," the spokesman told Agence France Presse.

The Loyalty to the Resistance bloc condemned on Thursday the Mustaqbal movement’s activity, accusing it of being responsible for the problems in Lebanon.

It said in a statement: “The problems plaguing Lebanon are the result of the Mustaqbal movement’s policies and governments that have turned Lebanon into a farm” at the American administration’s mercy.

Israeli defense officials ruled out a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities as early as 2005, U.S. diplomatic cables leaked to whistleblower site WikiLeaks show, an Israeli newspaper said Sunday.

The documents given to the Haaretz newspaper by WikiLeaks detail conversations between U.S. diplomats and Israeli defense officials, which suggested the Jewish state did not plan to target Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Israel is ready to stop firing on the Gaza Strip if Palestinian militants in the coastal enclave end a barrage of rocket and mortar fire, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday.

His comments came after Gaza's Hamas rulers declared a state of emergency for its security services in the wake of confrontations with Israel that have killed 18 Palestinians since Thursday.

Head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Affairs department Amos Gilad has reportedly said that U.S. support for the Lebanese army will weaken Israel.

“A strengthened Lebanese army hurts Israel,” Gilad stressed.

An Israeli tank round killed a Palestinian in Gaza early Saturday bringing to 12 the overall toll from the deadliest 24 hours of violence since a devastating war ended more than two years ago.

A truce declared by Palestinian armed groups unraveled even before it could take hold as militants fired dozens of mortar rounds and rockets into southern Israel and the military retaliated against Gaza.

Observers noted on Saturday that the dispute between Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Iran will be limited to the Lebanese internal scene, stressing that Lebanon will not succumb to the regional tensions.

A prominent political source told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Saturday that what appears to be a dispute over Lebanese-Iranian ties in fact stems back to the Saudi-Syrian initiative that was aimed at ending the Lebanese political crisis, which it turned out Iran had obstructed.