The Gaza branch of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party has started celebrations of its 48th anniversary in the Hamas-ruled territory, a local leader said on Tuesday.

"Yesterday we lit the light starting the anniversary of the revolution," Atef Abu Seif told AFP.

The Gaza branch of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party said on Friday it will mark its anniversary in the Hamas-ruled enclave after an accord between the two factions.

"We have agreed with (Hamas) prime minister Ismail Haniya that Fatah will celebrate its 48th anniversary on January 1 at the site of the Saraya" complex where its security forces were based, Fatah official Yehiye Rabba said.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday for the first time since an Egypt-mediated ceasefire on November 21, Israel's army radio and other media reported.

The reports said it fell on open ground and caused no injuries, but an Israeli military spokesman denied that a rocket had hit.

The head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land expressed "dismay" on Friday at a wave of attacks on local Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious sites over the past year.

In his Christmas message, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Fuad Twal, noted "an increase in a certain religious radicalism," with church data showing 25 acts of vandalism, arson and desecration of mosques, churches, synagogues and cemeteries since December 21, 2011.

An 18-year-old Israeli Arab was on Wednesday indicted for planting a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv that wounded 29 people at the height of last month's eight-day conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza.

In a hearing at Tel Aviv Magistrates Court, Mohammed Mafarja, a resident of Taibe village in central Israel, was charged with aiding the enemy during war, dozens of counts of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, causing an explosion and wounding dozens of people.

Member of the al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc Bahia Hariri confirmed on Tuesday that the Arab world is looking forward to see justice achieved for the Palestinian people, the state-run National News Agency said.

During her visit to the Gaza Strip on Monday in a show of solidarity, Hariri said: “The entire Arab world is eager to see justice achieved for the Palestinians. They look forward to see them regain their land and establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Hamas chief-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, on the third day of a trip to Gaza, told students that different situations called for different measures -- from rockets to a truce.

He also renewed his call for efforts to implement a stalled Palestinian reconciliation deal between his Hamas faction and bitter rival movement Fatah, which is led by president Mahmoud Abbas.

Leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah on Sunday called for fresh attempts to cement a reconciliation process that has been stalled for more than a year.

In Gaza, the exiled head of the Hamas movement Khaled Meshaal, in his first ever trip to the coastal territory, said it was time for the bitter opponents to make good on the deal they signed in Cairo in 2011.

With a snap election looming next month, the Israeli government and opposition traded barbs on Sunday over Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal's landmark weekend visit to Gaza.

The Hamas leader-in-exile's first-ever visit to the territory, during which he gave a speech pledging the movement would not cede "an inch" of historic Palestine, prompted anger in Israel and political recriminations.

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal rejected on Saturday ceding "an inch" of Palestinian territory to Israel or recognizing the Jewish state, in a speech in Gaza marking the 25th anniversary of the Islamist group's founding.

"Palestine is our land and nation from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river, from north to south, and we cannot cede an inch or any part of it," he said of the borders currently held by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, at a rally marking the 25th foundation of Hamas.