A senior Palestinian figure labelled Israeli former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who died on Saturday, as a criminal and expressed regret he was never taken before the International Criminal Court.

"Sharon was a criminal, responsible for the assassination of (Palestinian president Yasser) Arafat, and we would have hoped to see him appear before the International Criminal Court as a war criminal," said Jibril Rajub, a senior official of the Fatah party.

Former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon died in hospital near Tel Aviv Saturday after eight years in a coma, prompting a flood of tributes in Israel but contempt from Palestinians. He was 85.

"He's gone," his son Gilad told reporters at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer. "He went when he decided to go."

A senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that Hizbullah has dramatically improved its missile capabilities and can now pinpoint targets anywhere in Israel.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said Israelis will see Hizbullah's new might should a war break out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, whose countries are arch-foes, are both set to attend the World Economic Forum this month, organizers said Friday.

WEF spokeswoman Michele Mischler confirmed to Agence France Presse that both leaders would be at the January 22-25 annual gathering of top politicians and business leaders in the plush Swiss ski resort of Davos.

The wife of a Palestinian jailed in Israel gave birth in the Gaza Strip after being impregnated by sperm smuggled out of an Israeli prison, a prisoner association said on Friday.

While such births have been declared among West Bank wives of prisoners in Israel, this was the first such occasion in the besieged Gaza Strip, director of the Waed Gaza prisoner association Saber Abu Karsh told Agence France Presse.

Israel unveiled Friday a memorial in Tel Aviv to remember the gay and lesbian victims of Nazi persecution, in a ceremony attended by Germany's ambassador.

Members of Tel Aviv's gay community turned out to see the stone monument, modeled on the pink triangle Nazis made homosexuals wear in concentration camps during World War II, which features inscriptions in German, Hebrew and English.

The U.N. refugee agency Friday warned that Israel could be in breach of international law due to new rules that pave the way for the potentially indefinite detention of asylum-seekers.

Under legislation passed last month which has sparked mass protests by Africans in Israel, people who arrive illegally can be detained for up to a year without trial.

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was freed by Moscow last month after a decade in jail, has traveled from Switzerland to Israel on a private visit, his spokesman said Friday.

Khodorkovsky, who was in Switzerland with his family, "is on a short private visit" in Israel, his spokesman David Krikler told AFP, confirming news reports.

Israeli plans unveiled Friday to build over 1,800 settler homes are a signal to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry not to pursue his peace push, a top Palestinian negotiator said.

"The new settlement construction plan is a message from (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to Kerry not to come back to the region to continue his efforts in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks," Saeb Erakat told AFP.

Israel unveiled plans Friday to build more than 1,800 new settler homes, a move the Palestinians said was a signal to the U.S. to abandon efforts for Middle East peace.

The announcement comes a week after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the region in his latest attempt to push Israeli and Palestinian leaders towards an elusive peace deal.