TEL AVIV, Sept 2 (Reuters) – Captain Yossi Benayoun scored a
hat-trick to lead Israel to a 3-1 win over Malta in their
opening Euro 2012 Group F qualifier on Thursday.

Benayoun struck in the seventh minute with a low shot from
close range, converted a penalty in the 64th and finished off
with a header 15 minutes from time.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is in talks to build the wings for about a quarter of the United States’s new F-35 stealth fighter aircraft, an Israeli official said on Monday.

Lockheed Martin currently plans to build some 3,200 F-35s costing about $96 million each.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – American football, not the most genteel of sports, is proving to be an unlikely force in bringing together Israelis and Palestinians.

Nationals from the two territories, who have been in conflict for years, have formed the Judean Rebels, a squad that practices and plays American football every week on a field in Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel named a new army chief on Sunday, choosing a general who led troops in its Gaza war to face future challenges that could include a nuclear Iran and missile threats from Islamist militants.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced he had picked Major-General Yoav Galant as chief of staff, a decision that came several weeks earlier than expected after a scandal erupted over alleged lobbying for the country’s top military position.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A discharged Israeli female soldier was condemned by Israeli and Palestinian authorities on Monday for posting pictures of herself on Facebook posing next to bound and blindfolded Palestinians.

Former conscript Eden Abergil is seen in two pictures from her album entitled “Army — The best period of my life” next to hand-bound and blindfolded Palestinian men at an undisclosed location in the occupied West Bank.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s military failed to prepare adequately for what turned into a deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, according to findings of a military inquiry quoted by the Israeli media on Monday.

The official report into the May 31 incident, in which nine pro-Palestiniam Turkish activists were killed, was set to be released later in the day by a military commission led by Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli general.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s cabinet granted wider powers on Sunday to a commission investigating a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, enabling the panel to compel witnesses to appear and testify under oath.

But the decision did not constitute a broadening of the inquiry’s mandate to include an examination of Israeli political leaders’ decision-making in ordering the May 31 interception in which nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel would free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners if the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, the soldier its militants captured four years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

In a live address to the country, Netanyahu said Israelis wanted Shalit back safely but the nation could not “pay any price” because past experience showed many Palestinians released had returned to carry out attacks on Israelis.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel would free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners if the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, the soldier its militants captured four years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

In a live address to the country, Netanyahu said Israelis wanted Shalit back safely but the nation could not “pay any price” because past experience showed many Palestinians released had returned to carry out attacks on Israelis.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is examining ways to ease its Gaza blockade, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday, calling the current policy counterproductive and confirming remarks by Middle East envoy Tony Blair that change is likely.

“It is time to end the closure in its current form. It does not provide any value to Israel. From a diplomatic standpoint it causes great image problems,” Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog told Israel Radio.