Israel's once-squabbling Arab parties aim to bolster their influence in parliament to defend the rights of their minority with an unprecedented alliance forged ahead of snap elections.

The parties hope their show of unity will encourage a higher turnout among the 1.3 million Arab-Israelis who make up 20 percent of the population.

Palestinian, Israeli and foreign activists faced off against Israeli forces Friday in the occupied West Bank village of Bilin where they marked 10 years of protests against Israel's separation barrier.

In what has become a weekly ritual, the activists marched towards the barrier which cuts villagers off from their fields.

Once again this winter, following days of very heavy rainfall across the region, the banks of a riverbed running through central Gaza were breached, flooding dozens of Palestinian homes.

For the residents, there was no doubt: Israel was responsible after deliberately opening "a dam" to flood the enclave.

World-renowned graffiti artist Banksy has caused a stir in the Gaza Strip, apparently secretly traveling to the Palestinian territory and painting murals on buildings ruined by the latest conflict.

The artist, whose chooses to remain anonymous, released an online video entitled "Make this the year YOU discover a new destination", that purports to show him traveling to Gaza by commercial flight and then through smuggling tunnels -- possibly underneath the Egyptian border.

Israeli infantry unit and armored vehicles combed on Friday its northern border, carrying out thorough monitoring operations for the Lebanese side.

According to the state-run National News Agency, the armored vehicles and troops were accompanied by reconnaissance planes that flew over the occupied Shebaa farms and the Syrian Golan Heights.

Israel will stop cutting power to Palestinian cities over unpaid bills and will deduct funds from tax money to prevent the debt increasing, a government official said Thursday.

The official also said Israel would connect water to a Palestinian city so that it can be inhabited, after a minister's objection had been overruled. 

Suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a Greek Orthodox seminary building in Jerusalem early Thursday, police said, 24 hours after a mosque was torched in the West Bank.

The vandals torched an annexe of the seminary near the walls of the Old City and scrawled "graffiti insulting Jesus", police spokeswoman Luba Samri said, describing it as a "nationalist" attack.

Israel allowed two Gaza-based Palestinian ministers to travel to the West Bank for a cabinet meeting Thursday for the first time since the unity government took office in June, officials said.

Housing minister Mufid Hasayneh and justice minister Salim al-Saqa passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing and arrived in Ramallah, government spokesman Ihab Bseiso told AFP.

As a Jewish Israeli Communist running for election under an Arab banner, Dov Khenin is often the butt of jokes. But for some, he is nothing less than a traitor.

In a country where most of the electorate leans to the right, the 57-year-old member of a Communist party that includes both Jewish and Arab lawmakers is used to threats and hate mail.

For six months, Gazans left homeless by last year's war have waited patiently to be rehoused. But with no relief in sight and thousands still in U.N. shelters, tempers are fraying.

More than 100,000 homes in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed in Israeli bombardment during the 50-day conflict.