The Lebanese front has dominated the news but there’s still plenty of activity on the other:

Palestinian witnesses said undercover soldiers in the West Bank city of Nablus opened fire at several Palestinians, killing two gunmen without engaging in a clash. Initial reports from the witnesses said the militants had returned the soldiers’ fire.

The army said troops fought a gun battle with the militants. Palestinian armed groups said the dead men were Islamic Jihad’s most senior commander in Nablus and a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

This effort is an attempt to craft an official Lebanese position. Israel isn’t directly involved at this point:

The plan also calls for the return of displaced Lebanese to their homes, negotiations between Israel and Lebanon concerning the disputed Shebaa farms now under Israeli control, the disclosure of maps showing Israeli minefields near the Lebanese border, the deployment and strengthening of the Lebanese army and the expansion of the U.N. force in the south.

While Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire with Israel and an increased international presence in southern Lebanon, the group objected to “a robust force” of international peacekeepers in the region, the sources said.

Hezbollah did not specifically agree to disarm, as Israel has demanded, the sources said. The plan does, however, call for the Lebanese military to take control of southern Lebanon, along with the U.N. force, which implies that the Hezbollah militia would not operate there.

Hezbollah is already upset about the prospect of a multi-national force in Lebanon. Once an agreement like this goes through Hezbollah will regroup and start killing peacekeepers. It’s inevitable.

Rumors about a release started a few days ago but this story is starting to look pretty solid:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is on a visit to Italy, announced on Thursday that he had enough reason to believe that kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit would be released very soon.

Abbas was speaking to reporters in Rome after talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

“I told the prime minister that as far as the question of the abducted Israeli soldier is concerned efforts are undergoing continuously that lead us to believe that the solution will be imminent,” he said.

Anything could happen but at least there’s hope.

CNN has the story:

As the bloody fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon entered its 16th day Thursday, a top al Qaeda leader pledged that the terror group would not “stay silent” on the conflict.

The statement was on a tape made by Ayman al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, on the Al Jazeera television network Thursday.

“The al Qaeda organization will not stay silent regarding what the Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon are facing,” Zawahiri said.

The statement came just a day after international efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in Lebanon stalled at a conference in Rome.

An Israeli general said Wednesday that he expects the combat to continue “for a few more weeks.”

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Blogs of War – IDF-Hezbollah Fight Intensifies