Dozens of Jewish settlers rioted on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Hebron, clashing with the Israeli troops who guard them but who may also soon evict them from a disputed building they've occupied.

Warnings are growing louder that evicting tens of thousands of Jewish settlers from the West Bank's heartland - a requirement for peace with the Arabs - will be bloody, and perhaps fail.

Iran on Monday said it did not see possibility of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facility, the country's English language international news channel Press TV said.

Israel's navy ordered a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid to turn around on Monday, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.

Israel said it was keeping all border crossings with the Gaza Strip closed on Sunday, following rocket and mortar fire from the impoverished Palestinian territory.

Israel is concerned over an unspecified number of its nationals missing in Mumbai, which was struck by coordinated terror attacks in a dozen areas, including Nariman House, a building owned by the religious Jews' 'Chabad' movement.

For the first time in the history of Israel, a sitting Prime Minister is likely to be indicted on charges of fraud, breach of trust and tax evasion that have led to calls that he declare himself incapacitated immediately.

Israel reacted on Tuesday to militant rocket fire by again sealing off the Gaza Strip, where officials said the territory's sole power plant was forced to shut down because of the crippling blockade.

President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the Middle East peace process, which has so far failed to yield results, will continue after the two lame-duck leaders leave office.

A plan to pipe oil and gas from Turkey to Israel and then ship it to India will be discussed when officials from the three countries meet soon, media reports said on Tuesday.

Israel partially eased restrictions over Gaza Strip on Monday and allowed the transfer of humanitarian aid following a reduction in rocket attacks by Hamas on its southern communities over the past few days.

"We have to confront the Iranian revolution immediately. There is no way to stabilise the Middle East today without defeating the Iranian regime. The Iranian nuclear programme must be stopped," Israel's former Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said in an interview.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Sunday that he will call snap presidential and parliamentary elections in the New Year if reconciliation talks with the Islamist Hamas movement fail.

A pair of polls published on Thursday howed opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline Likud party cruising past Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's moderate Kadima party to a decisive victory in Israel's February 10 elections.

Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners "without blood on their hands" in a goodwill gesture towards moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the Muslim festival of al-Adha in December.

Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused the Islamist Hamas movement on Sunday of "shattering" the Gaza truce after two rockets hit Israel, prompting an air strike which killed four Palestinian militants.

Needy Gazans, seeking food aid, walked away empty-handed from locked UN distribution centres for the first time on Saturday, after a strict Israeli border closure depleted UN food reserves.

Oxfam joined the United Nations, European Union and Amnesty International in appealing to Israel to allow in food convoys and to resume supplies of fuel.

Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Iran and is keeping its "all options open" as the likelihood of diplomatic and economic efforts to thwart Islamic Republic's atomic plan succeeding is doubtful,a top ranking Israeli officialhas said.

Violence flared again around Gaza on Friday, wounding a woman in Israel and two Palestinian militants, as UN food delivery to 750,000 people ground to a halt in the besieged coastal strip.

The United Nations will suspend its food distribution to half of Gaza's 1.5 million people on Thursday after Israel failed to allow emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory, a spokesman said.

Basic supplies were to be sent into Gaza on Thursday following UN warnings that food deliveries to 750,000 people would be suspended unless Israel eases its total closure of the impoverished territory.

Israel indicated on Thursday that it hoped a truce in the Gaza Strip will hold despite a flare-up of violence in and around the besieged Palestinian territory in recent days.

Four Palestinian militants were killed and an Israeli soldier wounded in clashes on the Gaza border on Wednesday in the latest flare-up to rattle a nearly five-month lull and imperil aid deliveries.

Hamas announced on Saturday it will boycott next week's Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo, accusing president Mahmud Abbas of detaining hundreds of its members.