An Israeli man pleaded guilty in New Jersey on Thursday to brokering kidney transplants as part of a black market organ business, U.S. prosecutors said.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 60, confessed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, to three counts of acquiring and transferring human organs and a fourth count of conspiracy.

Syria slammed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s recent report on the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1559, saying that it has not meddled in Lebanese affairs or infiltrated Lebanese territory, reported the daily An Nahar on Friday.

Syria’s permanent ambassador to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari informed Ban in a letter: “The majority of the information on Syria mentioned in the report is based on misleading and fabricated media sources.”

A U.S.-Israeli citizen accused of spying in Egypt arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Israeli media said, freed under a prisoner exchange deal that saw Israel release 25 Egyptian detainees.

Israeli television and radio reported that Ilan Grapel had touched down at Israel's Ben Gurion airport at around 1630 GMT, arriving on a private plane from Cairo, accompanied by Israeli officials.

Talks between envoys of the international peacemaking Quartet and Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem ended with a pledge to introduce "comprehensive proposals" but no deal on new peace talks.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the peacemaking group, which comprises the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, said its envoys had met separately with both sides in a bid to kickstart long-stalled negotiations.

The Israeli air force carried out three raids early Thursday on the Gaza Strip after a rocket was launched from the Hamas-controlled territory at southern Israel, witnesses said.

The raids targeted areas east and west of Khan Yunes in the south of the Strip, and a base of Hamas's armed wing the al-Qassam Brigades was hit, they said.

Hizbullah is preparing its military arsenal and fighters to launch an operation to occupy the Galilee area in Israel, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.

The party’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s on February 16 sent “military notification… declaring that preparations to occupy the Galilee is ongoing,” a source close to Hizbullah told the daily.

Envoys of the Middle East Quartet are to hold separate talks on Wednesday with Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in a bid to find a way to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.

But the chances a breakthrough in the deadlock which has gripped the negotiations for more than a year look extremely remote with both sides taking very different positions on the conditions for restarting talks.

Turkey will accept foreign aid, including from Israel, to cope with a major earthquake that has left 459 people dead, a diplomatic source said Wednesday.

Turkey initially turned down offers of international aid after Sunday's 7.2-magnitude earthquake, but the source said Ankara changed its mind because of the urgent need for housing materials for those left homeless.

A 29-year-old Palestinian man was killed when a tunnel running underneath the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed, Palestinian medics said on Tuesday.

The man was identified as Ahmed Arbea, from the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis. Eyewitnesses said he was involved in smuggling through some of the many tunnels that connect the coastal territory to Egypt.

Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal MPs wrangled on Monday at the human rights parliamentary committee meeting which witnessed curses, threats and counter accusations.

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report by Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi on the alleged involvement of the Syrian embassy in the disappearance of Syrian opposition activists in Lebanon.