By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Boeing was given an $8.6 billion contract for the F-15 Israel Program, the Pentagon said on Monday, after U.S. President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida.

"This contract provides for the design, integration, instrumentation, test, production, and delivery of 25 new F-15IA aircraft for the Israeli Air Force with an option for an additional 25 F-15IA aircraft," the Pentagon said.

US President Donald Trump will receive Israel's highest civilian honor in 2026, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that his country will break with decades of tradition to recognize a non-citizen.

Speaking after a cordial Florida meet-up with Trump, Netanyahu said the move reflected "overwhelming sentiment" in Israel in appreciation of the US president's support for the country.

By Andrea Shalal and Kanishka Singh

PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not agree fully on the issue of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but the Republican leader did not lay out what the disagreement was.

In a briefing after a meeting with Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump was asked if he had a message for Netanyahu about the West Bank and if he was concerned that settler violence in the West Bank could undermine peace.

By Andrea Shalal

PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Israeli President Isaac Herzog had told him a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “on its way,” an assertion Herzog’s office was quick to challenge.

"He's a wartime prime minister who's a hero. How do you not give a pardon?" Trump told reporters while standing beside Netanyahu before a meeting in Florida. "I spoke to the president ... he tells me it's on its way."

Iraq's new parliament elected a senior figure from the Sunni Taqadom party as its speaker Monday, the first session since November elections that consolidated the main parties' grip on power.

Parliament's media office said 309 out of 329 lawmakers took part in the inaugural session, with Haibat al-Halbussi, 45, emerging as the winner from three candidates, with 208 votes.

By convention, a Shiite Muslim holds the post of prime minister, the parliament speaker is Sunni and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.

Some shopkeepers in Tehran shut their stores for the second day in a row Monday in protest against economic hardships and sharp swings in Iran's embattled currency, media reports said.

The rial has hit new lows on the unofficial market, with the US dollar trading at around 1.42 million rials on Sunday -- compared to 820,000 rials a year ago -- and the euro nearing 1.7 million rials, according to price monitoring websites.

The rates eased somewhat on Monday, with the dollar at around 1.39 million rials, and the euro at about 1.64 million rials.

Dec 29 (Reuters) - Hamas confirmed on Monday that its armed wing spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, and then Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar were killed in the Gaza war earlier this year.

The Israeli military said in May that it had killed Sinwar, the younger brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Three months later, it said it had also killed Abu Ubaida.

(Reporting by Jana Choukeir;Editing by Alison Williams)

By Nafisa Eltahir

Dec 29 - International aid staff who accessed Sudan's al-Fashir for the first time since its takeover by a paramilitary force found the city largely deserted, with a few people sheltering in buildings or under plastic sheets, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.

More than 100,000 are estimated to have fled al-Fashir since late October after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control there following an 18-month siege that plunged the city into famine.

ATHENS, Dec 29 - Greece, Israel and Cyprus will step up joint air and naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean in 2026, deepening their defence cooperation, Greek military officials and a senior source said on Monday.

The three eastern Mediterranean nations have drawn closer over the past decade through joint military drills, defence procurement and energy cooperation, developments closely watched by regional rival Turkey.

India's navy boasts aircraft carriers, submarines, warships and frontline vessels of steel as it spreads its maritime power worldwide.

But none of its vessels is as unusual as its newest addition that sets sail on its maiden Indian Ocean crossing on Monday -- a wooden stitched ship inspired by a fifth-century design, built not to dominate the seas but to remember how India once traversed them.