An Israeli soldier was stabbed and three Palestinians were shot during a confrontation near the West Bank town of Ramallah overnight, sources on both sides said.

The soldier was lightly wounded in the incident but the condition of the three Palestinians was not immediately clear, the Israeli army said.

One of Beirut’s most well-established bookshops, Librairie El Bourj, is to host the official launch of UAE-based writer, author and communicator Alexander McNabb’s Olives – A Violent Romance from 5pm on Thursday 29th March 2012 with a talk by the author followed by a reading and book signing.

The novel is set in Jordan, where British journalist Paul Stokes moves to live and work on a contract to produce a magazine for the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Israelis are competing for dwindling water resources as Jordan and Palestine face drought. Daoud Dajani has the solution to Jordan’s water problems and is bidding against the British for the privatisation of Jordan’s water network. When Paul befriends Dajani’s sister, Aisha, British intelligence agent Gerald Lynch realises Paul offers access to the man threatening to drain Israel’s water supply and snatch the bid from the British. Blackmailed by Lynch into spying on Dajani, his movements seemingly linked to a series of bombings, Paul is pitched into a terrifying fight for survival that forces him to betray everyone around him. Even the woman he comes to love.

The Toulouse gunman who killed seven people, including three young Jewish children, visited Israel for three days in 2010, Israeli security officials told Agence France Presse on Monday.

They said that Mohamed Merah entered the Jewish state on a French passport in September 2010 through the Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan where he was checked and given a tourist visa.

The Israeli foreign ministry decided on Monday to cut contact with the United Nations Human Rights Council after it said last week it would investigate Israeli settlements, a spokesman said.

"There was a decision by the foreign ministry to sever work contacts with the organization," ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Agence France Presse, adding that Israel had yet to formally inform the council of its decision.

Nearly two-thirds of Israeli Jews believe that the consequences for the Jewish state of a nuclear-armed Iran would be worse than those of an Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic, a poll showed on Monday.

The poll, published in Haaretz newspaper, found that 65 percent of Jewish Israelis agreed with the statement that "the price Israel would have to pay for living with the threat of an Iranian bomb would be greater than the price it would pay for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities."

Israeli warplanes on Sunday staged mock air raids over southern Lebanon and flew at a low altitude over Beirut, Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa.

“Starting 10:10 am today, Israel carried out mock air raids at a medium altitude over the areas of Nabatiyeh, Iqlim al-Tuffah, Marjayoun and Khiam,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

Israel has warned Lebanese authorities against a march by protestors to areas bordering the Jewish state on Land Day to mark the loss of Arab lands in the Galilee, Israeli daily Haaretz reported Sunday.

“Israel has asked Lebanon, using intermediaries, to stop its residents from approaching the Israeli border on Friday as part of Land Day protests,” the newspaper said.

Israel should boycott the United Nations Human Rights Council after it voted to authorize a probe of Israeli settlements, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told public radio on Sunday.

"This hypocritical organization has nothing to do with human rights. Its bias and lack of objectivity are obvious and we have no reason to cooperate with it," he told the radio station from Singapore, where he is currently on a trip.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour announced that Lebanon must help Syria end its crisis because it is a “sister state” with which “we share special and historic ties that cannot be abandoned,” reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper: “Lebanon will not recognize the Syrian National Council.”

The Minister of Administrative Development Mohammed Fneish announced that his ministry is ready to begin the proceedings to appoint the members of the recently-approved authority tasked with administering the oil sector, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper that he is prepared to carry out the necessary contacts with the Energy Ministry on Monday to this end.