Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he was prepared for further military action in Gaza after cutting short a Washington visit and returning to Israel following a shaky ceasefire announced by Hamas.

Locked in a tough re-election campaign, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week will host a visit from the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before flying to Washington for a possible meeting with President Donald Trump.

But Pompeo's Jerusalem visit -- sandwiched by additional stops in Kuwait and Beirut -- reflects a larger agenda than simply lending US support to an important regional friend at a key time. 

Weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel border were called off Friday after a military escalation between the Jewish state and Palestinian militants in the territory, organisers announced.

Turkey on Tuesday denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "blatant racism" after he called Israel the nation-state of "the Jewish people" only, not all its citizens.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has run into political trouble in the past, he has lashed out at the media, the political opposition and Israel's Arab minority with incendiary and divisive language to galvanize his nationalist base.

Ahead of April 9 elections, Netanyahu has zoned in on prominent Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi.

Here are some of the main issues in the campaign for Israel's April 9 general elections:

Israeli jets struck a Hamas military target in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for balloon-borne explosive devices late Tuesday, the army said, the fourth such strike in recent days.

Israeli aircraft targeted several militant sites in Gaza after an "explosive balloon" launched from the Palestinian enclave damaged a house in the Jewish state, the army said Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday was set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss how to prevent Iran from "entrenching in Syria". 

The two main challengers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April polls announced an electoral alliance on Thursday in a bid to defeat him.