The Palestinian Authority has urged the world to step up financial aid and press Israel to allow economic development, over fears of "political collapse" due to Israeli fiscal strangulation.

"We call on the international community to... pressure the government of Israel to release our revenues and to provide the financial support required to maintain basic functions and services," said a Palestinian Authority report seen by Agence France Presse on Monday.

A Palestinian infant who had been widely reported as killed by Israeli fire during a major assault on Gaza in November, died in an blast likely caused by a stray Palestinian rocket, a U.N. report has found.

The 11-month-old boy, Omar Mashharawi, died after being hit by shrapnel just hours after the eruption of a deadly eight-day confrontation between Israel and Hamas militants on November 14.

The Hamas prime minister charged on Friday that an upcoming regional visit by U.S. President Barack Obama was a "trap" aimed at undermining Palestinian reconciliation.

"We are convinced that Obama's visit will not produce the necessary breakthrough for our people," Ismail Haniya said at a sermon during weekly Muslim prayers in the Gaza Strip's al-Omari mosque.

Sweden on Wednesday became the ninth European country to upgrade the status of a Palestinian representative office to that of an embassy.

Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify a June 28 agreement between Stockholm and Ramallah on upgrading the Palestinian Authority's mission here.

Scores of Palestinian students forced the British consul general to make a hasty departure from a West Bank university campus on Tuesday, witnesses and an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Consul General Sir Vincent Fean had traveled to Bir Zeit University near Ramallah to deliver a lecture on Britain's policy in the region and the prospects for peace but was turned away by a noisy demonstration.

Israel on Monday launched a special bus service to transport Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to work in the Jewish state, triggering accusations of racism from a local rights group.

The service to Tel Aviv and central Israel starts at the military post at Eyal -- near the West Bank city of Qalqilya -- where Palestinians with permits to enter Israel are checked before being allowed to board.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday accepted the resignation of his finance minister Nabil Qassis, a government statement read.

Qassis, a former president of the Bir Zeit university near Ramallah in the West Bank who joined the government in May 2012, announced on Saturday he was resigning, without giving a reason.

The finance minister in the government of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad has resigned without specifying any reason, a spokeswoman told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

Nabil Qassis, a former president of the Bir Zeit university near Ramallah in the West Bank, joined the government in May 2012.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II met in Jordan last week and discussed the Middle East peace process, a diplomatic source told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

"Last week, Netanyahu traveled to Jordan and met King Abdullah II," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "In the meeting, they discussed the Middle East peace process."

Syrian rebels on Saturday hanged two Palestinians at a refugee camp in Damascus on suspicion of aiding the regime of President Bashar Assad, a rights watchdog said.

"Rebels in the Yarmuk camp executed two men accused of cooperating with the regime by identifying targets that were bombed last week," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.