Junior high and high schools began at 9:00am on Tuesday in an act of protest against increasing violence in the nation’s public schools.

**Intermittent showers, heavy at times, are expected during the morning hours on Tuesday, tapering off during the afternoon. Unseasonably cold temperatures are expected.

**Over 3 million tourists visited Israel in 2008, representing s 32% increase from the previous year.

**The IDF Homefront Command will conduct siren testing in the Greater Jerusalem area on Tuesday morning at 10:00am for one minute.

**A wanted suspect was apprehended during the night by IDF soldiers in the Ramallah area.

**Tel Aviv – Beersheva line trains service suspended to permit maintenance.

**Senior Fatah official killed in explosion near Mieh Mieh refugee camp in Lebanon on Monday, near the port city of Sidon.

**The 18-month-old toddler who choked on a banana on Sunday remains in extremely critical condition in Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center. A second infant remains in Rambam as well, comatose and on life support for the past six weeks after choking on an apple.

**A 65-year-old homeless male was found outside a Jaffa St. store in Yerushalayim. He was transported to Bikur Cholim Hospital where he is reported in serious condition with frostbite.

**While protestors attempted to prevent a bus of visitors from entering Tel Monde Prison on Monday, demanding visitations be halted until Gilad Shalit is released, Meretz leader Chaim Oron paid a visit to Fatah Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti. (Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)