Palestinian leaders will work toward peace with any Israeli government that recognizes the Palestinian state, foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday.

But Malki told the U.N. Security Council that actions by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since U.N. members recognized the Palestinian state in November have been "the complete antithesis of the two-state solution."

A 21-year-old Palestinian woman died after being hit in the face by Israeli gunfire in the southern West Bank Wednesday, medics said, with witnesses saying she was shot by soldiers.

Lubna Hanash was killed in a shooting outside a college near al-Arrub refugee camp, some eight kilometers (five miles) north of Hebron, medics said.

Israel's new government will prioritize domestic socio-economic issues, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Wednesday, a day after he won a narrow election victory.

"The Israeli public wants me... to put together a government which will include three big changes internally: a greater sharing of the burden (of military service), affordable housing and changes in the system of government," he said in a brief broadcast address.

Israel's elections, which saw an even split between rightwing and center-left blocs, are unlikely to produce a coalition bent on reviving peace talks, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.

"I don't see a peace coalition or a peace camp emerging now and revitalizing itself," Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official with the Palestine Liberation Organization, told reporters.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu stumbled out of a bruising election Wednesday with a reduced majority, faced with having to curb his hawkish Palestinian policy to woo emergent centrist kingmaker Yair Lapid.

In results that defied expectations, the centrist Yesh Atid became Israel's second strongest party, just nine months after it was created by Lapid, a former journalist, who has overnight become the country's newest political star.

Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud-Beitenu list won a narrow majority in Tuesday's election but was weakened by an unexpectedly strong showing by the centrist Yesh Atid, according to exit polls.

The polls, released by Israel's three main television stations, showed Netanyahu's Likud, running on a joint list with the hardline Yisrael Beitenu, winning just 31 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, followed by Yesh Atid with 18-19 and Labor in third place with 17.

Polls opened on Tuesday in Israel's general election, which is expected to return Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to power at the head of a government of hardline right-wing and religious parties.

The ballot to choose Israel's 19th parliament is likely to usher in a sharply right-wing government, diminishing the chances of a peace deal with the Palestinians and raising the prospect of greater diplomatic isolation for the Jewish state.

Military Tribunal Judge Imad al-Zein interrogated on Monday a Lebanese man on charges of collaborating with Israel, reported the National News Agency.

He is accused of collaborating with Israel, meeting with Israeli officials in a number of foreign countries and providing them with information on the Lebanese and Syrian armies, as well as the members of Hizbullah.

The Israeli army early Monday morning removed a Palestinian protest encampment of four tents and a building under construction near a West Bank village, military sources said.

In addition to demolishing the structures near Beit Iksa, on the northwestern outskirts of Jerusalem, "20 Palestinians at the site were evicted without incident," the sources said.

Israeli soldiers headed to the polls on Sunday, two days ahead of a general election, the military said, as politicians made last-ditch appeals before nationwide voting gets underway on January 22.

The army said that the first military ballot boxes went into action at the Defense Ministry's massive Tel Aviv headquarters on Saturday for the benefit of "officers and soldiers unable to vote on Tuesday because of operational activity."