Thousands of Israelis demonstrated on Saturday in Tel Aviv and other cities against the hard-right government's judicial overhaul opponents see as a threat to democracy.

The reform package has split the nation and triggered one of the biggest protest movements in Israel's history since being unveiled in January by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition, which includes extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.

Demonstrators have kept up pressure on the Netanyahu government with weekly protests across the country.

A Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli municipal officer in commercial hub Tel Aviv on Saturday, before being fatally shot by another officer, authorities said.

The attack came amid a surge in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a day after a 19-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Tel Aviv police said a gunman opened fire at a municipal inspector in the city centre, who according to the Magen David Adom emergency service was taken to hospital "in critical condition" and later pronounced dead.

A former aide of a lawmaker from Israel's hard-right governing coalition was among two settlers arrested Saturday over the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported.

Qusai Jamal Maatan was shot dead in Burqah, east of Ramallah, on Friday as armed settlers clashed with villagers.

The UN has warned of a dramatic spike in such cases since the most right-wing government in Israel's history took power at the end of last year.

Three family members, all civilians, were killed on Saturday when Russian warplanes struck the outskirts of the northwest Syrian city of Idlib, a war monitor said.

Russia has over the years repeatedly struck Syria's last main opposition bastion, but attacks killing civilians had been limited this year until an uptick in violence in late June.

"Russian air strikes this morning" to the west of Idlib left "three dead from the same family" including a woman and a child, and six others wounded, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Mourners on Saturday attended the funeral of a Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, after the UN warned of a dramatic spike in such cases.

The Palestinian health ministry in a statement late Friday announced the death of Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, saying he was "shot dead by settlers in the village of Burqa", east of Ramallah.

At the funeral procession, Maatan was wrapped in a black and white keffiyeh head covering and Palestinian flag. Mourners carried his body through the village streets before his burial, said an AFP journalist at the scene.

Saudi Arabia hosted talks on the Ukraine war Saturday in the latest flexing of its diplomatic muscle, a session that Kyiv had predicted would "not be easy" given the wide range of countries represented.

The meeting, which Ukrainian organisers said would include representatives from nearly 40 countries but not Russia, concluded on Saturday evening after several hours of statements from the various delegations and a lengthy closed discussion, participants said.

Two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were shot by Israelis on Friday, one by soldiers and the other by settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Late Friday it announced the death of Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, saying he was "shot dead by settlers in the village of Burqa", east of Ramallah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Earlier, soldiers had shot dead another young Palestinian.

Lebanon marked three years since one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut with hundreds of protesters marching alongside victims' families Friday to demand long-awaited justice.

Nobody has been held to account for the tragedy as political and legal pressures impede the investigation.

On August 4, 2020, the massive blast at Beirut port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

The United States is preparing to deploy Marines and Navy personnel aboard commercial tankers transiting the Gulf as part of efforts to deter Iran from seizing ships, a US official said Thursday.

The security forces would provide a further layer of protection for the tankers in addition to the warships and planes operating in the strategically vital area, through which around a fifth of the world's oil passes.

Iraqi Kurds are to go to the polls on February 25 to elect a new parliament for their autonomous region, authorities announced Thursday, ending months of bickering between rival factions.

The election had been due to be held in October last year, but the two main parties in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), failed to reach agreement on changes to constituency boundaries.

Instead the outgoing regional parliament extended its mandate for another year and set November 18 as the new election date.