November's eight-day confrontation between Israel and Gaza militants claimed the lives of 177 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and six Israelis, medical sources on both sides said.

A previous toll at the end of November stood at 174 Palestinian fatalities, and three more people have died of their wounds during December, according to emergency services in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday issued a rare and strong joint condemnation of Israeli plans to massively expand settlements.

A statement released during an EU-Russia summit said the two sides were "deeply dismayed by and strongly oppose Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank and in particular plans to develop the El area."

Some 13,000 members of Syria's Palestinian refugee community have gone back to square one in Lebanon. Like their ancestors, they too have been forced to flee their birthplace into exile.

"The Palestinians can endure anything. But the children cannot understand that I cannot bring them milk or change their nappies, that I have no choice but to let them live in misery," said Umm Khalil, cradling one of her children.

President Michel Suleiman slammed on Friday Israel's decision to construct 2,600 new settlements in the West Bank.

He said: “The decision reveals the enemy's rejection of international efforts to reach peace in the region.”

Two-thirds of Israelis are opposed to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank, a poll showed on Friday.

According to the results of a Maagar Mohot survey published in Maariv newspaper, when asked if they would support the establishment of such a state, 66 percent said they would not, while 11 percent said they would.

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.

Most Palestinians support both rocket fire into Israel and their people's enhanced U.N. status while still viewing peaceful negotiation as the best way to achieve statehood, a poll showed on Thursday.

The survey, carried out by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, found a sharp increase in the number of Palestinians who said rocket fire from Gaza into Israel would "help" the Palestinians, in the wake of a November conflict between Israel and Gaza militant groups.

There are some 11 million Palestinians scattered around the world, including more than five million refugees living throughout the Middle East.

Their plight has made headlines in Syria, where the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugee UNRWA says as many as 100,000 Palestinians may have fled the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus in recent days because of fighting.

Israel will be "held accountable" for its settlement building, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday after Israel pushed forward plans for more than 5,000 new settler homes.

"The settlers and the government of Israel should know they will be held accountable," Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for president Mahmoud Abbas, told Agence France Presse shortly after Israel reportedly okayed initial plans for a new settlement city in the southern West Bank.

The United Nations on Wednesday called on Israel to cancel plans to build thousands of new settler homes in the occupied Palestinian territories, warning it could be "an almost fatal blow" to peace hopes.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon's political chief also told the U.N. Security Council that Israel must resume the transfer of frozen tax and customs money to the struggling Palestinian Authority "without delay."