Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli military police are investigating alleged involvement of Orthodox soldiers in attacks on Palestinians. Police are investigating whether weapons issued to the soldiers were used in shooting attacks on Palestinians, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.

The paper said there is no connection between the allegations and a separate investigation into a suspected extremist Jewish cell, which carried out a series of attacks that killed some 10 Palestinians in the Hebron and Ramallah area during the past year.

Retired Israeli general receives mixed verdict

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- An Israeli court acquitted a retired brigadier general on charges of revealing classified information with the intent to harm national security. But the Tel Aviv court found Yitzhak Ya'acov guilty on the lesser charge of giving classified information to an unauthorized person, an offense punishable with a jail sentence of up to 15 years.

Ya'acov, 76, was head of the army's weapons development unit until 1973. The charges stemmed from two books he wrote -- a memoir and novel, both of which, the prosecution claimed, contained important data.

Peruvian immigrants arriving in Israel

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Forty-eight new immigrants from Peru arrived last week. The arrivals, all of whom converted to Judaism last December via a special

beit din

(rabbinic court) sent by the Chief Rabbinate, come from villages outside Lima.

They join some 150 other Peruvians who came here in 1990 and 1991. A second group was slated to arrive this week.

Israeli centenarians get presidential honor

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel is planning to honor people older than 100. There are some 610 centenarians living in Israel, and dozens of them will be honored this week at a ceremony at the president's official residence in Jerusalem.

According to National Insurance Institute statistics, two-thirds of the centenarians are women. The oldest is a Bedouin woman who is believed to be about 116, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.