The Palestinian leadership has not been consulted about a US-led conference in Bahrain next month in support of Washington's Middle East peace plan, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said.

A surge in deadly violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel petered out overnight with Palestinian officials reporting that Egypt had mediated a ceasefire on Monday ending the most serious spate of cross-border clashes for months.

Four Palestinian demonstrators have been killed and more than 300 injured in clashes with the Israeli army on the Gaza border since Friday night, the Gaza Health Ministry said yesterday.

Israel kept up air strikes on Gaza into Tuesday and Palestinian militants launched new rockets despite a reported ceasefire deal, raising fears of a return to open conflict in the enclave.

Qatar is likely to make it mandatory soon that back seat passengers should also wear seat belts, a top official disclosed on Monday.

Qatar has called on the international community to take all necessary measures to stop the violations and crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has chosen his close adviser Mohammad Shtayyeh to be the new prime minister, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Sunday.

Two Palestinians were martyred by Israeli occupation forces on Monday, while a third was injured at the entrance to Kafr Ni'ma village, northwestern Ramallah in the northern West Bank.

Two Palestinians including a Hamas policeman suffocated to death from gas in a cross-border tunnel under Gaza's frontier with Egypt, the enclave's interior ministry said Monday.

Israeli occupation forces arrested nine Palestinians in various parts of the West Bank Monday.

Hamas on Sunday denounced Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's plan to dissolve the largely defunct Palestinian parliament that it controls, calling it a move to ‘serve his partisan interests’.

At least 18 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire Friday in small protests along the Gaza border, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave said.