Israel will be "held accountable" for its settlement building, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday after Israel pushed forward plans for more than 5,000 new settler homes.

"The settlers and the government of Israel should know they will be held accountable," Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for president Mahmoud Abbas, told Agence France Presse shortly after Israel reportedly okayed initial plans for a new settlement city in the southern West Bank.

The United Nations on Wednesday called on Israel to cancel plans to build thousands of new settler homes in the occupied Palestinian territories, warning it could be "an almost fatal blow" to peace hopes.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon's political chief also told the U.N. Security Council that Israel must resume the transfer of frozen tax and customs money to the struggling Palestinian Authority "without delay."

Israel on Wednesday issued tenders to build another 1,048 settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, housing ministry spokesman Ariel Rosenberg told AFP.

Rosenberg said an unspecified number of homes would go up in the east Jerusalem settlement suburb of Har Homa, but construction would be "mainly in Beitar, Karnei Shomron, Givat Zeev and Efrat," in the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the international community to help Palestinian refugees fleeing fighting in camps in Syria to enter the West Bank and Gaza.

"Mahmoud Abbas, president of the state of Palestine, requested Wednesday that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the international community enable our people in Syria to enter Palestinian territory," a statement carried on the official WAFA news agency said.

Israeli planning committees are to weigh several plans for nearly 5,000 new settler homes in neighborhoods of annexed east Jerusalem this week, with at least one major project set for final approval.

Non-governmental groups Peace Now and Terrestrial Jerusalem, which track settlement construction, said Jerusalem municipal and district committees will consider four projects this week in the Givat HaMatos and Gilo neighborhoods.

The Palestinian leadership said on Monday it will seek a U.N. Security Council meeting on Israeli plans to build new settlers homes on occupied territory.

The leadership is about to take "important and necessary measures against Israel's settlement building, including recourse to the U.N. Security Council, to prevent implementation of these decisions," president Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

Israel on Monday gave the green light for developers to go ahead with controversial plans to build 1,500 settler homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the interior ministry told AFP.

Spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said the ministry's planning committee had told the applicants to trim their request to build 1,600 new housing units at Ramat Shlomo to 1,500 and resubmit it "for final approval".

Pope Benedict XVI received Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Monday and called on all parties involved in the Middle East crisis to find the courage to work together for peace and reconciliation.

In a statement following the meeting, the Vatican said it hoped the United Nations' recent recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state would "encourage the commitment of the international community to finding a fair and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

The Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza has seen a sharp rise in popularity since its eight-day war with Israel and would win as many seats as Fatah if a Palestinian vote were held now, a poll found Monday.

The survey, carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), comes after last month's conflict, a top-level visit to Gaza by Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and after the Palestinians successfully won upgraded U.N. membership.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed on Sunday for an immediate halt to firing on Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, after air strikes on the Yarmuk camp in Damascus killed at least eight civilians.

The Islamist Hamas movement also condemned the attacks, calling them a "crime."