In a statement on Monday, the army said its chief investigator, Maj. Gen. Gershon Hacohen, had determined that the use of the cluster bombs did not violate international law, and that “the majority of the cluster munitions were fired at open and uninhabited areas, areas from which Hezbollah forces operated and in which no civilians were present.”  Hezbollah has also been accused of using cluster munitions among the 4,000 rockets it fired into Israel during the fighting.  In the meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, no progress was registered on substantial issues. But the two sides agreed that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, would meet later this week and that the teams would also meet in early January, Israeli officials said, before President Bush arrives in the region on Jan. 8.  Both sides have pledged to fulfill their obligations under a 2003 peace plan known as the road map, which calls on Israel to halt all settlement activity, including natural growth, and on the Palestinians to act to halt all violence against Israelis.  The Palestinians said before Monday’s meeting that they intended to focus on Israel’s plans to continue building in Jewish settlements, in areas that the Palestinians claim for their future state. After the meeting, Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, condemned the settlement building and said that the Palestinians demanded a construction freeze before talks toward a peace deal could start.  Aryeh Mekel, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that the Palestinians had indeed raised the settlement issue and that Israeli negotiators had raised the security issue.  Also Monday, a committee of Israeli ministers led by Vice Premier Haim Ramon began examining the government’s criteria for early release of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli officials said.  Loosening those rules could facilitate the return of captured Israeli soldiers who are believed to be held by the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah; it could also open up the possibility of larger prisoner releases to bolster Mr. Abbas, the officials said, speaking anonymously because the issue is still being debated.  The current government policy, set in July 2003, bars the release of prisoners with “blood on their hands,” defined as those who participated in attacks in which Israeli or foreign nationals were killed or wounded; their dispatchers; and would-be suicide bombers who were captured before carrying out an attack. Rafi Eitan, a cabinet minister, told Israel Radio on Monday that the current restrictions made it nearly impossible to negotiate for the release of captured soldiers.  Hamas is demanding that 450 Palestinian prisoners be let go in exchange for an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid by Hamas and two other militant groups and taken to Gaza in June 2006.  There have been contradictory reports from Hamas in recent days about whether indirect contacts over Corporal Shalit, which had stopped after Hamas gained control of Gaza over the summer, have restarted. The Israeli government maintains a strict official silence on the subject.  Since July, Israel has released about 770 Palestinian prisoners in three batches to shore up Mr. Abbas and his government in the West Bank. About 9,000 Palestinian security prisoners remain in Israeli jails.  In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed early Monday in an Israeli airstrike. Medical officials and witnesses said the two were Hamas guards patrolling the border. An Israeli Army spokeswoman said there had been an airstrike against Palestinians spotted near the border fence.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Israel Won’t Prosecute for Use of Cluster Bombs in Lebanon. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The announcement came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met in Jerusalem for the second time since the American-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Md.