Palestinian Christians near Bethlehem on Monday urged Pope Francis to speak up against an Israeli decision to build its controversial separation barrier on a route they say would cut off their community.

"We cry to your Holiness with a feeling of despair and urgency in order to keep alive our hope that justice and peace is still possible," said an open letter from the Christians of Beit Jala, a town near

Militants in the Gaza Strip on Monday sent a mortar shell crashing into an open area in southern Israel, a day after a rare retaliatory air strike by Israeli forces, the army said.

"A mortar shell struck an uninhabited area in the Eshkol region near the security fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip," an army spokeswoman said on Monday.

The incident came 24 hours after Israeli warplane

A group of settlers raided a Nablus village on Monday and attacked local residents, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told solaa that three religious settlers from Itamar raided Beit Furik and attacked residents with "sharp tools," causing head injuries to two residents.

Fawzi Nasasra, 60, and Abdul Rahman

A ground-to-ground missile was fired on a town in northern Syria at dawn on Sunday and killed at least four civilians, two of them children, a watchdog reported.

Anti-regime activists of the Aleppo Media Centre said the missile, which slammed into a residential area of Tal Rifaat, was a Scud, although this could not be independently verified.

The attack also killed two women, wounded several other

 Israeli forces arrested two workers from Beit Ummar in Jerusalem on Sunday, a local committee said.

Committee spokesman Muhammad Ayad Awad told solaa that Israeli forces detained Muhammad Alkam, 22, and Muhammad Abdulrahman, 26, after raiding a Jerusalem construction site.

Neither men had work permits, Awad said.

Abdulrahman fell from a building during the chase and was late

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has no plans to shut down its Gaza office, spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said Sunday.

In early April, UNRWA closed its Gaza office after an escalation in protests against the reduction in financial assistance to vulnerable refugees.

Speaking to solaa via telephone, Abu Hasna said that only UNRWA's general commissioner could make a decision about closing UNRWA

Israeli warplanes bombed two sites early Sunday in the south of the Gaza Strip belonging to the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

No injuries were reported, but a training site was damaged, a statement from the National Resistance Brigades said. Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at the site, the groups said.

Israeli aircraft also bombed a site belonging to Is

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his ministers to keep silent about Syria to avoid the impression Israel is pushing the international community into armed intervention, army radio said Sunday.

Netanyahu gave the instructions after Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin suggested the international community might react militarily to "take control of the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal".

WASHINGTON (AFP) --

US President Barack Obama on Friday will host Jordan's King Abdullah II for White House talks that are sure to focus on Syria, after Washington said Damascus had likely used chemical weapons.

Just over a month after the king welcomed Obama to Amman, the US president wants to discuss "Jordan's political and economic reforms, the crisis

A Palestinian teenager was shot by Israeli forces in Jabaliya refugee camp, medics said.

Jameel Heesha, 17, was shot in his left foot near the northern border of Gaza Strip.

He was taken to a nearby hospital with moderate injuries.

An Israeli army spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

On Thursday, Israeli gunboats opened fire toward Palest