The Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas chaired on Thursday a regular tripartite meeting with senior officials from the Lebanese army and the Israel Defense Forces at the U.N. Position at Ras al-Naqoura crossing, said UNIFIL in a statement.

During the meeting all the issues relevant to the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 were discussed, including the situation along the Line of Withdrawal (Blue Line), the ongoing visible marking of the Blue Line, violations and incidents as well as the issue of withdrawal of Israeli forces from northern Ghajar, it added.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Thursday the Palestinians' announcement that they were ending informal talks with Israel does not mean the two sides have reached an "impasse."

"I do not think there is an impasse. I know that President (Mahmoud) Abbas is thinking carefully about how to move forward. For him the meeting of the Arab (League) Follow up Committee in Cairo is extremely important," Ashton told reporters after meeting with Abbas in Amman.

Visiting Belgian Defense Minister Pieter De Crem stressed on Thursday his country’s support for Lebanon’s efforts to maintain security and develop the demining program.

He said after holding talks with his Lebanese counterpart Fayez Ghosn that Belgium is keen on Lebanon’s stability.

Israel is putting together a plan for a national investment fund that would tap an anticipated natural gas bonanza to fuel both an export-geared economy and provide a nest egg of $10 billion in under a decade for future generations.

The proposed Israeli sovereign wealth fund is still in the planning phase, but officials have said some of the revenues would be invested in strategically critical targets such as education and health.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel on Tuesday, causing no damage or injuries, an Israeli police spokesman said.

"One rocket was fired earlier this morning from Gaza and landed in an open area in the Eshkol region," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

The Military Tribunal headed by Judge Alice Shabtini upheld on Tuesday retired General Fayez Karam’s sentence to two years in prison without stripping him of his civil rights.

Karam had been imprisoned on charges of collaborating with Israel.

Israeli forces overnight demolished the home of a Bedouin family near Jerusalem for the fifth time, along with four other structures in an unrecognized Bedouin village, an Israeli NGO said on Tuesday.

Israel's Civil Administration, the military body that oversees the West Bank, confirmed the demolitions.

Envelopes containing white powder initially feared to be anthrax arrived at six Israeli diplomatic missions in Europe and the U.S., Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

According to reports, embassies in The Hague, Brussels and London and consulates in New York, Houston and Boston on Monday received envelopes with the word "anthrax" on them, containing what turned out to be harmless white powder.

Israel carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight Monday, sources from both sides said, in what Israel said was a response to recent rocket fire against the Jewish state.

Israeli planes targeted an arms factory in the center of the Palestinian territory as well as three tunnels used for smuggling contraband, two in the north and one in the south, the army said in a statement.

Phalange Party politburo condemned on Monday the statements of Iran's Quds Force, Brig. Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Lebanon, questioning the government’s silence on the matter.

It said in a statement after its weekly politburo meeting headed by party chief Amin Gemayel: “For how long will the state maintain such a cowardly approach?”