Israel delayed a vote Wednesday on permits for settler homes at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request, ahead of a speech by US Secretary of State John Kerry, an official said.

The discussion was pulled from the agenda in a move following last week's UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlement building and with Kerry set for a major speech on the conflict later in the day.

Israeli tanks fired shells at a Hamas post in the Gaza Strip on Monday after troops were shot at on the border with the Palestinian territory, the army said.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager early Sunday during a confrontation in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah re-elected him party head Tuesday as the movement opened its first congress since 2009 with talk mounting of who will eventually succeed the 81-year-old.

Abbas was re-elected by consensus, party spokesman Mahmoud Abu al-Hija said, and was due to address the congress at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT). Some 1,400 delegates were attending.

Key dates in the life of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority since 2005:

Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which on Tuesday holds its first congress in seven years, is at the heart of the Palestinian institutions:

The United States on Monday condemned Israel's "unprecedented and troubling" step toward legalizing unauthorized Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Israeli ministers on Sunday approved draft legislation that would retroactively grant legal status to wildcat settlements across the West Bank in defiance of international law.

A museum dedicated to Yasser Arafat, including the room where the Palestinian leader spent much of his final years under Israeli siege, will open on Wednesday ahead of the anniversary of his death.

An Israeli court sentenced three Palestinian teenagers to more than a decade in prison Monday for stabbing Israelis, including a 14-year-old involved in one of the most high-profile attacks.

The Palestinian government will protest against a delay in its application to join the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) at the body's annual conference next week, an official said Friday.