The U.N.'s human rights chief on Friday said the circumstances of the death of a senior Palestinian official while manhandled by Israeli soldiers this week were "disturbing" and called for a timely and impartial investigation.

Israel on Friday condemned Switzerland's plan to host a conference on respect for international human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, charging it was a deviation from the country's traditional neutrality.

Switzerland has announced a December 17 conference in Geneva, in response to a recommendation from the U.N. General Assembly at the request of Palestinian authorities.

A Palestinian threw acid at a family of Israelis picking up a hitchhiker in the West Bank Friday before being shot and wounded, residents and the army said.

The incident came with tensions running high in the occupied territories after months of unrest, and follows the death of a senior Palestinian official this week in a confrontation with Israeli troops.

The head of the Israeli army's planning directorate has said the military will formulate in the coming months a new security plan to counter Hizbullah's growing arsenal.

In any future war, Hizbullah’s rockets will be “much more precise, (possess) much larger warheads” than Israel has seen in the past, The Jerusalem Post quoted Maj. Gen. Nimrod Shefer as saying at a diplomatic conference.

Greek police on Friday said a far-left group was likely responsible for a night-time gun attack on the Israeli embassy in Athens that saw the building sprayed with gunfire but no one hurt.

Two Kalashnikov assault rifles used in the attack had been used in a similar attack on the residence of the German ambassador last December by the People's Fighter Group, a police source said.

A man who attacked British pro-Palestinian lawmaker George Galloway in a London street while calling him "anti-Semitic" was jailed for 16 months on Thursday.

Neil Masterson, 39, admitted to attacking Galloway in August in a frenzied assault while wearing a pink t-shirt with a logo of the Israeli Defense Forces, and shouting "anti-Semitic little man, I... despise you." 

Thousands of Palestinians on Thursday mourned a senior official who died in a confrontation with Israeli troops, while the army sent reinforcements and dispersed protesters in the West Bank.

The Palestinian leadership blamed Israel for the "killing" of 55-year-old Ziad Abu Ein, as tensions threatened to boil over into another round of violence in the occupied territories.

Jordanian plans to buy gas from Israel have aroused fierce opposition in the kingdom at a time of mounting criticism of the Jewish state's policies towards the Palestinians.

Parliament began debating the proposed gas deal on Tuesday, after 79 lawmakers in the 150-seat house filed a motion calling for it to be scrapped.

Israel doesn't expect a Syrian or Lebanese response to an airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel earlier this week since they are too tied up with that country's bloody civil war and can't afford to open another front, a senior Israeli military officer said Wednesday.

The officer said Hizbullah fighters had the capability, but not the motivation, at this time to harm Israel and there was no "logic" to picking a fight with Israel while it was knee-deep in battling a Sunni insurgency.

Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated that Israel was “stealing” Lebanon's natural gas through a pipeline lying in its territorial waters despite a claim made by Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian that he did not have information about the alleged aggression.

Berri told As Safir daily published on Thursday that he has “evidence” condemning Israel.