Jerusalem, 23 Feb 

More than 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip over a 24-hour period, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Friday.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks with Egyptian officials about a possible cease-fire in Gaza and an exchange of hostages held by the militants for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, according to a Hamas statement Friday morning.

During Hamas' Oct 7 attack on southern Israel, militants killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages. Roughly half of the hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 100 hostages remain in captivity, in addition to the bodies of 30 others who were killed on Oct 7 or died in captivity.

Israel's subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians and driven some 80% of the territory's 2.3 million people from their homes. Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south, and around 1.5 million are packed into Rafah near the border with Egypt.

European diplomats have ramped up calls for a cease-fire as alarm grows over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Currently:

— Israel plans to build 3,300 new settlement homes. It says it's a response to a Palestinian attack.

— Mideast cease-fire efforts gain steam as a US envoy visits. Mediators report encouraging' signs.

— Denmark records its highest number of antisemitic incidents since WWII, part of a grim European trend.

— A Houthi rebel attack sets a cargo ship ablaze and forces Israel to intercept another attack near Eilat.

BLINKEN SAYS THE US OPPOSES SETTLEMENT EXPANSION

Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the United States believes that all new Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories is “illegitimate” under international law, reversing the Trump administration's repudiation of what had been long-standing U.S. policy.

Speaking in the Argentine capital, Blinken said the US was “disappointed” to learn of an Israeli announcement on Friday that it would build more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the West Bank in response to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack.

Blinken condemned the attack but said the US is opposed to settlement expansion. He reversed what had been known as the “Pompeo Doctrine” under which former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had repudiated a Carter administration-era legal finding that settlements were not consistent with international law.

“It's been long-standing US policy under Republican and Democratic administrations alike that new settlements are counter-productive to reaching an enduring peace,” Blinken told reporters at a joint news conference with Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino.

Blinken's predecessor, Pompeo, reversed the 1978 determination that was penned by the State Department's then-legal adviser Herbert Hansell. The Hansell Memorandum did not say that settlements were “illegal” but rather “illegitimate”. That formed the basis of decades of US policy.

2 DEAD IN ISRAELI DRONE STRIKE ON A CAR IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK

A Palestinian man wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the occupied West Bank died of his injuries, bringing the number of people killed in the attack to two.

The two men, their bodies wrapped in the flags of the militant group Islamic Jihad, were buried Friday in the Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli military said one of those killed, identified as Yasser Hanoun, was about to carry out a shooting attack when the strike hit his car late Thursday. It alleged that Hanoun was previously involved in several shooting attacks targeting Israeli settlements and army posts.

Violence has escalated in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, triggered by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct 7. Since then, about 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank, most as part of near-daily arrest raids by troops searching for suspected militants.

NORWAY'S FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS FOR A STOP TO INJUSTICES AGAINST PALESTINIANS

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Friday that Israel's occupation and the Israeli settlements “are the biggest obstacles to a two-state solution, which is the only solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine”.

In a comment to Norway's submission to the International Court of Justice, Barth Eide said "the injustice to which the Palestinians are subjected must stop”.

He added that “while the eyes of the world are focused on the horrific war in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is also very serious”.

MORE THAN 100 PALESTINIANS WERE KILLED IN 24 HOURS, THE HEALTH MINISTRY IN GAZA SAYS

 Israeli airstrikes in central and southern Gaza killed at least 68 Palestinians, health officials and an Associated Press journalist said, and another 24 bodies were trapped under rubble.

In all, 104 Palestinians were killed over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday. The overall death toll since the Oct 7 start of the war rose to 29,514. Though the count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, the ministry has said women and children account for about two-thirds of those killed.

The strikes were reported in the southern city of Rafah, the central town of Deir al-Balah and the refugee camp of Nuseirat.

In Deir al-Balah, bodies draped in white or black burial shrouds were laid out in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital, as relatives wept nearby. The bodies were later collected by relatives and taken for burial after brief prayers.

Outside the hospital, a man held the body of an infant killed in one of the strikes.

ISRAEL AIMS TO BUILD 3,300 NEW HOUSES IN SETTLEMENTS IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK

 Israel plans to approve the construction of more than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, a senior Cabinet minister from the far-right wing of the government announced.

Approval of new construction is bound to elicit condemnation from the United States at a time when the relationship between the allies is fraught because of disagreements over the course of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement late Thursday that the new construction is meant as a response to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack near Jerusalem earlier in the day. He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant participated in the discussion leading to the decision.

The homes are to be built in the settlements of Maale Adumim, Efrat and Kedar, Smotrich said.

Consecutive Israeli governments have expanded settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank — war-won territories the Palestinians seek for a future state. Construction has accelerated under Netanyahu's current right-wing government, which includes settlers such as Smotrich in key positions.

2 HEZBOLLAH MEMBERS ARE KILLED IN AN ISRAELI STRIKE ON A SOUTHERN BORDER VILLAGE IN LEBANON

The paramedics arm of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group says two of its members were killed in an Israeli strike on a southern border village early Friday.

The Islamic Health Society identified the two as Hussein Khalil and Mohammed Ismail, saying they were killed when the group's office in the village of Blida was directly hit, a day after an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Rumman killed two members of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, including a local official who was identified as Hassan Saleh.

Hezbollah later said it retaliated the attack on Blida by launching two explosive drones at an Israeli army post in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, claiming it scored direct hits.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct 7, the Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli troops. Since then, nearly 200 Hezbollah fighters and at least 40 civilians have been killed.

NETANYAHU PUBLISHES DETAILS OF HIS PLAN FOR POSTWAR GAZA

 Israel will control security in a demilitarized Gaza Strip and play a role in civilian affairs after its war on Hamas ends, according to a plan Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted to his Cabinet for approval.

While lacking specifics, the plan marks the first time he has presented a formal postwar vision. Netanyahu's insistence on an open-ended Israeli role in running Gaza runs counter to key US proposals for a revitalised Palestinian autonomous government eventually governing both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to statehood.

The plan, published by the prime minister's office, was presented to Cabinet ministers late Thursday. It reiterates that Israel is determined to crush Hamas, the militant group that overran the Gaza Strip in 2007. Polls have indicated that a majority of Palestinians don't support Hamas, but that the group has deep roots in Palestinian society. Critics say Israel's goal of eliminating Hamas is unattainable.

It calls for freedom of action for Israel's military across Gaza after the war to thwart any security threat and says Israel would establish a buffer zone inside Gaza — likely to provoke US objections.

The plan also envisions Gaza being governed by local officials who it says would “not be identified with countries or entities that support terrorism and will not receive payment from them”.

It's not clear if any Palestinians would agree to fill such sub-contractor roles. Over the past decades, Israel has repeatedly tried and failed to set up hand-picked local Palestinian governing bodies.