Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a rare temple and religious figurines dating back to the Judaean period nearly 3,000 years ago, Israel's Antiquities Authority said on Wednesday.

The discoveries were made at Tel Motza, outside Jerusalem, during archaeological work taking place ahead of new highway construction in the area.

The Shin Bet internal security service has arrested 10 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine accused of planning to kidnap Israelis, the agency said on Tuesday.

The arrests were made several months earlier but a media blackout was imposed.

Israel's nationalist religious Jewish Home party is continuing to win support away from the rightwing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of January 22 elections, according to a poll published Tuesday.

The party led by Naftali Bennett is now projected to win 13 seats in next month's elections, the survey published in the daily Haaretz shows, up two from the newspaper's last poll on December 10.

Israel's interior ministry has approved the building of 1,200 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Gilo, the latest in a slew of such approvals, Israeli watchdog Peace Now said.

The approval, which came late on Monday night, follows Israeli committee approvals for thousands of units in neighborhoods across east Jerusalem and in the West Bank last week.

Israel's ex-foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who quit this month after been charged with breach of trust five weeks ahead of a general election, may have the charges against him toughened, the justice ministry said Sunday.

Media reports said police will question Lieberman, head of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, this week in an inquiry relating to the promotion of Zeev Ben Arieh, Israel's former ambassador to Belarus.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday for the first time since an Egypt-mediated ceasefire on November 21, Israel's army radio and other media reported.

The reports said it fell on open ground and caused no injuries, but an Israeli military spokesman denied that a rocket had hit.

Turkey has agreed to drop its ban on cooperating with Israel as a third-country NATO partner, a diplomat said Sunday.

Ankara cut off such cooperation after the Israeli army raided a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip in 2010, leaving nine Turks dead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday welcomed the nomination of Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as U.S. secretary of state, calling him a well-known defender of Israeli security.

"I congratulate John Kerry on his nomination to the post of American secretary of state. Kerry, who has great experience, is a well-known defender of the security of Israel," he said in a statement issued by his office.

November's eight-day confrontation between Israel and Gaza militants claimed the lives of 177 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and six Israelis, medical sources on both sides said.

A previous toll at the end of November stood at 174 Palestinian fatalities, and three more people have died of their wounds during December, according to emergency services in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday issued a rare and strong joint condemnation of Israeli plans to massively expand settlements.

A statement released during an EU-Russia summit said the two sides were "deeply dismayed by and strongly oppose Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank and in particular plans to develop the El area."