<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Israel hit Gaza with air strikes on Monday in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave at the weekend, the army said, as unrest persisted in the occupied West Bank.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Palestinian Red Crescent said one person was killed in a pre-dawn Israeli army raid in Nablus in the northern West Bank, the scene of near-relentless violence over the past year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The army did not immediately comment on the Nablus raid.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in Gaza, it said it had struck "an underground complex containing raw materials used for the manufacturing of rockets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The strikes were launched were "in response to the Saturday rocket launch from Gaza into Israel," the army added in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following the Israeli strikes, air raid sirens sounded in communities in near the Gaza border, the military said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There were no reported casualties in Gaza or Israel following the latest round of missile fire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Israeli-Palestinian conflict is enduring a dramatic increase in violence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 47&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians, following the latest death in Nablus.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nine Israeli civilians, including three children, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a move like to inflame tensions, Israel's security cabinet late Saturday announced that it would legalise nine West Bank Jewish settlements in response to fatal Palestinian attacks in annexed east Jerusalem.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A security cabinet statement said many of the newly authorised communities had existed for years, and others for decades, but had not previously been recognised as legitimate by Israel's government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day War.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some 475,000 Jewish settlers now live in the Palestinian territory, in&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">communities considered illegal under international law.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most of that population is in settlements that Israel has unilaterally&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">authorised, but some live in communities that have not been given government authorisation.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The security cabinet also said it intends to announce a new round of settler housing construction in the West Bank, a step likely to draw widespread international condemnation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned against settlement expansion in a trip to the region last month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government also announced a beefed up security presence in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem, the scene of two recent deadly attacks targeting civilians. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>