An Israeli court on Thursday found two senior Hamas members who had taken refugee in Red Cross east Jerusalem offices guilty of "membership of a terror organization" and staying in Israel without permits.

Former Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs Khaled Abu Arafeh and Hamas MP Mohammed Totah had barricaded themselves in the International Committee of the Red Cross offices on July 1, 2010, but were arrested on January 23, 2012.

Israeli army gunfire wounded two Palestinians near northern Gaza's border with the Jewish state on Thursday, an official with the Hamas government said.

Gaza's health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said one was in serious condition after being hit in the chest, while the other was in moderate condition. The incident occurred east of the town of Beit Hanun.

Israel has confirmed it jailed a foreigner in solitary confinement on security grounds who later committed suicide, as Australia admitted Thursday it knew one of its citizens had been secretly held.

The man, identified by Australian media as Mossad agent Ben Zygier, known as "Prisoner X", died in a secret prison near Tel Aviv in 2010 in a case Israel went to extreme lengths to cover up, imposing media gag orders.

Israeli troops on Wednesday opened fire at a man walking from Syrian-held territory towards the Israeli-annexed zone of the Golan Heights, an army spokeswoman said.

"Soldiers identified a suspect approaching the border fence in the southern Golan Heights," she told Agence France Presse.

The number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank grew by 4.7% in 2012, according to figures obtained by Agence France Presse Wednesday from a settler organization.

The settler population stood at 360,000 at beginning of January 2013 compared to 343,000 in January 2012, according to the Yesha Council, the largest organization of West Bank settlers.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations has criticized the European Union for regarding Hizbullah as a legitimate political organization, urging it to designate the party a terrorist party.

“Calling Hizbullah a charity is like calling al-Qaida an urban-planning organization because of its desire to level tall buildings,” Ambassador Ron Prosor told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday in an open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

Bulgaria has given Europol the names of two of the people suspected in a bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists last year, with hopes that the police agency can trace their movements and uncover how they financed the attack, the country's interior minister said.

The European country also has requested that Lebanese authorities arrest and extradite the two suspects, who are allegedly Hizbullah members and believed to be living in Lebanon, an official said.

Two Israeli MPs on Tuesday questioned the justice minister over reports about the mysterious 2010 death of an Australian prisoner with suspected Mossad ties whose identity was kept top secret.

"This prisoner was detained under a name which was not his own. Do you know about this?" Arab Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi asked during an open question session in the Knesset, or parliament.

An Egyptian court has sentenced two Israelis to two years in prison for illegally entering the country, a judicial source said on Tuesday.

The court issued the verdict on Monday, the source said. Andrey Pshenichnikov, 24, and Ahmed Daif, 33, appear to have entered Egypt separately.

Israel on Tuesday condemned North Korea's latest nuclear test, saying the world must send "a clear message" to Pyongyang that such activities were unacceptable, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

"Israel strongly condemns North Korea's nuclear test, and joins the international community in expressing the grave danger that this act poses to regional stability and international peace and security," Yigal Palmor said in a statement.