Israel will begin rolling out a major coronavirus vaccination campaign next week after the prime minister reached out personally to the head of a major drug company. Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control will have to wait much longer.

Worldwide, rich nations are snatching up scarce supplies of new vaccines as poor countries largely rely on a World Health Organization program that has yet to get off the ground. There are few places where the competition is playing out in closer proximity than in Israel and the territories it has occupied for more than half a century.

Israel on Thursday released a Palestinian who waged a 103-day hunger strike to protest Israeli rules allowing his detention without charge, the Palestinian Prisoner's Club said.

Israel is set to approve construction of Jewish settler homes in a flashpoint area of the West Bank city of Hebron for the first time since 2002, the anti-occupation group Peace Now said Tuesday.

A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank late Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry announced.

A Palestinian wounded in clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Jenin has died of his injuries, bringing to two the number killed on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Saturday announced a cut in all ties with Israel and the United States, including security cooperation.

A Palestinian woman brandishing a knife at the Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and the northern West Bank was shot dead by Israeli security forces Wednesday, police and medical sources said.

The Israeli army troops shot dead four Palestinians on the Gaza border early Saturday, one of whom had managed to cross and throw a hand grenade at troops.

Palestinian leaders in Gaza agreed a ceasefire with Israel on Monday to end a deadly two-day escalation in violence that threatened to widen into war, officials with knowledge of the deal said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the deal, but there appeared to have been no rocket fire or Israeli strikes after it was due to take effect, an AFP correspondent in Gaza said.

Israel reduced the offshore fishing limit it imposes for vessels operating out of Gaza from Tuesday following rocket fire from the territory by Palestinian militants, officials said.