An Israeli strike killed one person in southern Lebanon on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said, with Israel accusing the slain man of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative.

The latest attack, despite a November ceasefire, comes a day after Israeli strikes killed seven people in the eastern Bekaa Valley, two of them members of leftist militant group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The man killed in Friday's strike, Mohammad Shahadeh, ran a local news website and colleagues took to social media to offer their condolences to his family.

Israel's military will "take control" of Gaza City under a new plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet, touching off a wave of criticism Friday from both inside and outside the country.

Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a truce to pull the territory's more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

Israel's foe Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war, denounced the plan to expand the fighting as a "new war crime".

By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund will next week announce changes to the handling of its Israeli investments, Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday, ruling out any blanket withdrawal over the war in Gaza.

The government on Tuesday said it had launched an urgent review of the fund's investments over ethics concerns linked to the war in Gaza and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

BERLIN (Reuters) -The German government will not approve any exports to Israel of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday in response to Israel's plan to expand its military operations there.

The release of the Israeli hostages and negotiations for a ceasefire are Germany's top priorities, Merz said in a statement, expressing deep concern over the suffering of civilians in the Gaza strip.

(Reporting by Kirsti KnolleEditing by Ludwig Burger)

Germany will halt the export of military equipment to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday, sparking an angry response from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Berlin's move, in response reaction to an Israeli plan to take control of Gaza City, marks a drastic change of course for Germany, long one of Israel's staunchest international allies.

Merz expressed "deep concern" at the suffering of Gaza's civilians.

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey's foreign minister will travel to Egypt on Saturday for talks with senior officials on Israel's plan to take control of Gaza City and on the humanitarian situation there, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said on Friday.

Israel's political-security cabinet approved a plan early on Friday to take control of Gaza City, as it expands its military operations despite growing domestic and international criticism over the devastating almost two-year-old war.

(Refiles to correct byline)

GAZA (Reuters) -Basem Alhabel stood amongst the ruins of Gaza, with people flat on the floor all around him as bullets flew, and filmed himself using sign language to explain the dangers of the war to fellow deaf Palestinians and his followers on social media.

LONDON (Reuters) -The Israeli government's plan for a full-scale military takeover of Gaza will cause more deaths and suffering and must be halted immediately, the United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said on Friday.

The plan runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible, to the realisation of the agreedtwo-state solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination, Turk said in a statement.

By Anne Kauranen

HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said on Friday she hoped U.S. President Donald Trump will move forward with imposing sanctions on Russia as it would help bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

"I certainly hope that President Trump will move forward with those sanctions," Valtonen said in a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker interview.

(Corrects to say "Gaza City", not "Gaza," in headline and first paragraph)

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday said Israel's decision to take control of Gaza City was wrong and urged the government in Jerusalem to reconsider.

"The Israeli Government’s decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately," he said in a statement.

"This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed."