Israeli troops on Thursday demolished four villas near the ancient city of Jericho, which Israel said endangered a nearby archaeological site, sources on both sides said.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the villas, which are located in Ad-Duyuk at-Tahta northwest of the town, were owned by Palestinians living in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The Israeli military has banned 12 Jewish extremists from the West Bank for three to nine months because they are suspected in violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

The military had no comment when asked why the radicals were not arrested. The extremists were not identified in the military's statement Thursday.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was on Thursday indicted alongside a number of other people for allegedly taking bribes in a massive property scandal, judicial sources said.

The allegations stem from Olmert's tenure as Jerusalem mayor and will add to the woes of the former premier, who is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.

The cabinet on Wednesday approved the executive decrees for the law on oil excavation in Lebanon’s territorial waters.

The parliament endorsed the bill in August 2011.

The Israeli army and the Israel Atomic Energy Commission are preparing for the possibility of an attempted attack on the Dimona nuclear reactor during a conflict with Iran, Syria, Hizbullah or Hamas, Haaretz daily reported.

Dimona is located within the range of surface-to-surface missiles possessed by Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, it said.

Israel is considering walling off part of its border with Lebanon, fearing sniper fire at newly-built apartment blocks in the frontier town of Metulla, Israeli military sources said on Tuesday.

They said Israel was liaising with Lebanese and U.N. officials with a view to erecting an anti-sniper wall along a kilometer-long section of the frontier between Metulla and Kfarkila, a Lebanese village which at one point had a high-rise casino adjacent to the existing border fence.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that the past week's Iranian war games in the Strait of Hormuz were a sign of the regime's "distress" in the face of tightening Western sanctions.

"We saw reports about the large Iranian drill near the Strait of Hormuz today, which included missile firings," Barak told members of his Atzmaut (Independence) faction.

The family of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has only "a few weeks" left in control of the strife-torn country, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told MPs on Monday.

"The Assad family has no more than a few weeks to remain in control in Syria," Barak told the parliament's prestigious foreign affairs and defense committee in remarks quoted by the committee spokesman.

Iran has dramatically expanded its diplomatic missions throughout Latin America and dispatched members of its elite Quds Force to serve in its embassies “to carry out covert activities” with the assistance of Hizbullah, U.S. officials have said.

The Washington Post quoted former U.S. intelligence officials as saying that “the presence of Quds Force officers and other military personnel in diplomatic missions enhances Iran’s ability to carry out covert activities, sometimes in conjunction with members of the Iran-backed Hizbullah militant group that operates extensive networks in Latin America and maintains ties with drug cartels.”

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya will Monday meet the head of an Islamic aid group whose Gaza-bound vessel was stormed by Israeli troops in 2010 in a raid that left nine activists dead.

Haniya, who is making his first trip abroad since Hamas rose to power in Gaza in 2007, will tour the Turkish passenger ship Mavi Marmara and meet relatives of the victims.