Speaker Nabih Berri cabled on Friday Syrian President Bashar Assad on the occasion of the anniversary of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

He said: “Your country is passing through one of its most difficult tests and I am certain that your experience in defying Israel will enable you to overcome your current crisis.”

A Lebanese man accused of plotting an attack on Israeli tourists in Cyprus pleaded not guilty on Friday before a criminal court in the southern city of Limassol, court sources said.

Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, who was arrested in the southern resort city some three months ago, appeared before the court under tight security.

A U.S. national opened fire at a hotel in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat on the Red Sea on Friday, killing a hotel employee, before being shot dead by the security forces, Israeli police said.

The shooting, which took place in the Leonardo Club hotel, occurred as the southern beach resort was packed with tourists and Israelis enjoying the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles.

The Nabi Sheet explosion in a Hizbullah arms depot occurred due to a flame in one of the shells percussion caps which led to the series of explosions, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

According to information obtained by the daily, the security report says that the high temperature in the area helped the fire to combust swiftly.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip crashed into southern Israel on Monday night, without causing casualties or damage, an Israeli military spokesman said.

"The rocket landed in the Ashkelon area without causing any casualties or damage," the spokesman told Agence France Presse.

Thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world marched through the streets of Jerusalem on Thursday alongside Israeli soldiers and workers, in an annual show of solidarity with the Jewish state.

A spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) said about 5,000 pilgrims from around 90 countries took part, out of a total participation that Israeli officials estimated at about 25,000.

An Israeli court on Thursday charged an Arab Israeli with gathering information for Hizbullah, including details of security arrangements for President Shimon Peres, the Shin Bet security agency said.

In a statement, Israel's domestic security service said Milad Mohammed Khatib, from the Arab village of Majdal Krum in northern Israel, was charged with "espionage, contact with an enemy agent, aiding the enemy in time of war and conspiracy to aid the enemy."

Nine Israelis -- five Arabs and four Jews -- were arrested on Thursday after scuffles at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, Israeli police told Agence France Presse.

"A group of Arab Israelis threatened a group of Jews and Christians visiting the Temple Mount," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said of a first round of arrests in the morning in which five Arabs and a Jew were detained.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday he believes "the Arab Spring will be followed by a Persian Spring," with international sanctions against Iran leading to renewed domestic unrest.

His remarks came a day after scuffles broke out in central Tehran in the first sign of unrest over Iran's plunging currency, which has lost more than half its value since last week as European and U.S. sanctions have bitten.

A ship built in Gaza will sail next year carrying Palestinian exports to international customers, and to challenge Israel's blockade from the inside out, Canadian activists said Wednesday.

The Gaza's Ark project is building a boat using existing resources in the tiny Palestinian enclave to carry Palestinian goods to the outside world, former Canadian Member of Parliament Jim Manly.