Sawt Falasteen - Israel strikes Gaza, one killed in West Bank arrest raid

The latest unrest comes amid a significance escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence, with dozens killed in recent weeks.

The Palestinian health ministry said Amir Ihab Bustami, 21, was killed in a pre-dawn Israeli army raid in Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank, the scene of repeated clashes over the past year.

The army said it had apprehended two men, Abdul Kamel Jouri and Osama Taweel, who had allegedly shot dead the Israeli soldier Ido Baruch in October. Three others were also arrested, the army said.

The Israeli army said it had collected intelligence for months trying to "locate a hideout apartment where the assailants were hiding".

"Overnight, the forces arrived at the hideout apartment and an exchange of fire was instigated between the forces and the wanted suspects," it added.

Separately, in Gaza, the army said it had struck before dawn "an underground complex containing raw materials used for the manufacturing of rockets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation".

It said the strikes were "a response" to Saturday's rocket.

Ayman Shamalakh, a gas station owner in the coastal territory, told AFP the strikes hit a nearby events hall, causing glass to shatter in the area, and added that "as for the hall, it was completely destroyed".

Following the Israeli strikes, air raid sirens sounded in communities near the Gaza border, the military said.

Since the start of the year, the conflict has now claimed the lives of 47 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians.

Nine Israeli civilians, including three children, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.

- Settlement approvals -

In a move likely to further inflame tensions, Israel's security cabinet late Sunday announced it would legalise nine West Bank Jewish settlements in response to fatal Palestinian attacks in annexed east Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government also announced a beefed-up security presence in east Jerusalem, the scene of two recent deadly attacks targeting civilians.

A security cabinet statement said many of the newly authorised West Bank settler communities had existed for years, and others for decades, but had not previously been recognised as legitimate by Israel's government.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called for the international community to "punish" Israel over the move.

Jordan's foreign ministry spokesman Sinan Majali said "such measures will push towards more violence" meaning that "everyone will pay the price".

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Some 475,000 Jewish settlers now live in the Palestinian territory, in communities considered illegal under international law.

Most of that population is in settlements that Israel has unilaterally authorised, but some live in communities that have not been given government authorisation.

The security cabinet also said it intended to announce a new round of settler housing construction in the West Bank, a step likely to draw widespread international condemnation.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking during a trip to the region last month, warned against settlement expansion.

N.Shalabi--SF-PST