Russia on Friday said Israel's approval of 1,600 new homes in an east Jerusalem settlement would worsen an already explosive situation in the Middle East peace process.

The decision to build new homes in the area "cannot but arouse serious concern and disapproval," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem stated on Thursday that the Resistance does not have any enemies on the internal scene in Lebanon.

He said during a Ramadan iftar: “Our only enemy is Israel and we don’t have enemies in Lebanon, except sides that we differ with politically.”

A member of Hamas' armed wing was killed Thursday in a "mysterious explosion" in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, the group and Palestinian medical sources said.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades announced the death in a statement, naming the militant as 20-year-old Ali Nayef al-Haj.

Israel's interior minister Eli Yishai has given final approval for the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, his spokesman told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Roei Lachmanovich also said the interior minister was set to give final approval for another 2,700 settler homes in east Jerusalem neighborhoods in "a couple of days."

Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private U.S. study released Tuesday.

"Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent)," said the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life study.

An Israeli army bulldozer has damaged a communications cable and cut all phone and Internet networks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.

The blackout was caused late on Tuesday by a military bulldozer operating in Nahal Oz, close to the Palestinian enclave, Hamas telecommunications officials told AFP.

Israel's social protest movement on Wednesday called for demonstrations to be held across the Jewish state on Saturday except in Tel Aviv which saw mass rallies last week.

"We decided not to stage demonstrations in Tel Aviv but to call for rallies across the country," protest leader Stav Shafir told Agence France Presse.

The Israeli air force has begun using unmanned aircraft to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance missions over Israeli gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea out of fear that they will be targeted by Hizbullah, The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.

The Israeli daily said the decision to deploy the drones came after the Shiite party warned Israel that it would protect Lebanon’s maritime sovereignty.

Speaker Nabih Berri said that the March 14 forces have lost control over their nerves, stressing that disarming Israel and not the resistance must be a national aim.

“The real danger is the Israeli greed and its wars against Lebanon… Disarming the Zionist arms not the resistance is an urgent national goal,” Berri said on Monday at an Iftar at BIEL.

Hizbullah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq accused on Sunday the March 14 camp of smuggling arms to Syria, in an attempt to transform Lebanon into a launching pad for attacks against the Arab state.

He said: “The camp can no longer bank on Israeli wars or the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to return to power, but they now can only exploit the developments in Syria to achieve this goal.”