Gaza militants have fired two rockets and two mortars at southern Israel, none of them causing any injuries or damage, the Israeli military said on Sunday.

"We identified two rocket launches from Gaza at Israel to the Eshkol and Shaar Hanegev regions Saturday night," a spokeswoman told Agence France Presse, adding two mortars were fired at Israel the evening before.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya will begin a tour on Sunday, his office said, his first exit from Gaza since Israel and Egypt imposed a siege in 2007.

Sources in his office told AFP that Haniya would visit Egypt and Sudan, after which he plans to go to Qatar, Turkey, Tunisia, and Bahrain.

Hundreds of Christian faithful, defying lashing rains and wind, filled the ancient Bethlehem church that marks Jesus' traditional birthplace for Christmas Day Mass on Sunday, even as a blast in a Nigerian church shattered the holiday's message of peace on earth.

Worshippers, dressed in their holiday best and some in the traditional attire of foreign lands, rushed into the Church of the Nativity under the cover of umbrellas, leaving Manger Square, with its 50-foot-tall (15-meter-tall) Christmas tree, deserted. The sanctuary was packed, and the overflow crowd waited eagerly in an arched corridor for a chance to enter.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi hoped on Sunday that the state would bolster trust in the armed forces.

He said during the Christmas mass that was held at Bkirki: “The state should assign all security and defense duties to the political authorities.”

The Lebanese Army Intelligence Thursday arrested a man (M. D.) on suspicion of launching the latest rockets from the South.

According to Al-Manar television “this arrest was made on the international road in Shtoura after the suspect was being followed by the army.”

Hizbullah denied on Thursday U.S. allegations of involvement in a $300 million laundering scheme and drugs trafficking, saying they are aimed at targeting the resistance and tarnishing its image.

“Hizbullah categorically denies the false accusations of its involvement directly or indirectly in money laundering or drug trafficking or banking transactions as claimed by the New York Times,” the party said in a statement.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir on Tuesday visited Israel for the first time for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials, a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse.

"This is a working visit of just one day," he said, indicating Kiir would also meet President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim Robert Watkins welcomed on Tuesday Lebanon’s continuing commitment to U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.

He said after holding talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour: “Lebanon and Israel should be doing more to ensure that the remaining requirements of the resolution are met.”

Israel on Sunday freed 550 Palestinian prisoners, completing the second phase of the deal which saw Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit freed in October, Palestinians said.

Officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah said that the main contingent of freed prisoners entered the city aboard a fleet of buses at around 10:00 pm (2000 GMT), where thousands of well-wishers awaited them at the Palestinian presidential headquarters.

Israel's housing and construction ministry said on Sunday it was to publish tenders for the construction of more than 1,000 housing units in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

According to the ministry's website, the tenders are for 500 new units in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, and more than 500 in two West Bank settlements -- 348 in Beitar Ilit near Bethlehem, and 180 in Givat Ze'ev northwest of Jerusalem.