An Israeli foot patrol crossed the U.N.-drawn Blue Line at the Kfarshouba hills area and entered 150 meters deep into Lebanese territories, the National News Agency reported Monday.

NNA said that the patrol violated Lebanese sovereignty at around 10:30 am.

Trading on Israel's Tel Aviv stock exchange was temporarily halted on Sunday after share prices fell six percent at the open on news of a U.S. credit rating downgrade, public radio reported.

Trading opened as normal on Sunday, the first day of Israel's working week, but mandatory suspensions went into effect minutes into the session as the stock exchange plunged.

Almost a quarter of a million Israelis rallied in central Tel Aviv on Saturday, police said, for a mass protest aimed at pushing the government into reforms to ease the cost of living.

The organizers appeared to have achieved their target of drawing a "critical mass" out onto the streets to underline the staying power of a movement which began in mid-July over housing costs.

Israel's air force carried out three new raids on the Gaza Strip overnight, wounding three people, Palestinian witnesses and medics said on Friday.

Two adults and a child were hurt when a training camp of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military branch of Hamas that controls the tiny Palestinian coastal enclave, was hit in the north, the sources said.

Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel warned Hizbullah on Friday against attempts to target the March 14-led opposition saying its project is doomed to failure.

“Hizbullah should be aware that its project is doomed to failure,” he said at the opening of the 29th Phalange conference. “We stress to Hizbullah that no one in Lebanon wants to target it but we don’t accept that it turns its arms against us.”

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil described parliament’s adoption of a draft law on the delineation of Lebanon’s maritime border as an “achievement,” saying however, it was now time for the cabinet to issue decrees paving way for the exploration of oil and natural gas in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

Bassil told As Safir daily published Friday that Premier Najib Miqati’s government should commit to its policy statement and issue the decrees that would give licenses for international companies to explore oil.

Israeli police deployed in force in Jerusalem's Old City after limiting access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound ahead of the first Friday prayers during Ramadan.

"More than 2,000 police and border guards were deployed in Jerusalem," said a police spokesman, adding access was blocked to the esplanade for Muslim men under the age of 45.

Israel's interior ministry has given final approval for the construction of 900 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Har Homa, a ministry spokeswoman told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

"This is a program which was approved by the regional (planning and construction) committee two years ago," spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said.

Representatives of Israel's growing social protest movement have called for massive demonstrations on Saturday night to further press their calls for a reduction in the cost of living.

"All the people who are involved in this wave of protests have called for mass demonstrations against the government this Saturday night in Tel Aviv and other cities," protest leader Stav Shafir told Agence France Presse.

Israel is to free 770 Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, including a founder of the Islamist movement Hamas, due to overcrowding, a prison services spokeswoman told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Sivan Weizman said that all of the prisoners, among them 200 Palestinians, had almost completed their sentences.