A Palestinian man carries his child amid the rubble of a building destroyed in Israel's attack on Gaza in 2022. (Credit: AFP)
Israel struck a Hamas base in Gaza on Monday in response to a rocket fired from the enclave, while one Palestinian died during what the army called a West Bank raid targeting suspects.
The latest unrest comes amid a significant escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence, with dozens of Palestinians 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 organization."
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 unlawfully annexed east Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line 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 authorized West Bank settler communities had existed for years, and others for decades, but had not previously been recognized 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 authorized, but some live in communities that have not been given government authorization.
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.