Israel's government summoned the French ambassador on Wednesday over his country's support for a failed Palestinian bid to pass a U.N. resolution setting an end date for Israeli occupation.

Foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told Agence France-Presse that the ambassador, Patrick Maisonnave, was being summoned to the ministry in Jerusalem later in the day.

The Palestinian leadership on Monday presented changes to a U.N. draft resolution on statehood that could come up for a vote at the Security Council as early as this week.

The United States again rejected the text that would pave the way to a Palestinian state by setting a 12-month deadline to reach a final peace deal and calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory by the end of 2017.

A knife-wielding Palestinian wounded two Israeli police officers on Friday in Jerusalem's Old City, the scene of months of tensions, authorities said.

One officer was wounded in the neck and the other in the hand, according to a police spokeswoman who described their injuries as light.

Israeli authorities gave final approval on Wednesday to the construction of 380 new settler homes in two areas of annexed east Jerusalem, a local official said.

"The municipal commission has given construction permits for 307 homes in Ramot and 73 in Har Homa," Yosef Pepe Alalu, a Jerusalem city councilor with the opposition Meretz party, told AFP.

Pilgrims from across the world descended on Jesus's birthplace in Bethlehem Wednesday to begin the global celebration of Christmas after a violence-plagued year brought suffering to many Middle Eastern Christians.

The not-so-little West Bank town was bustling with activity ahead of the biggest night of the year which will culminate in midnight mass at the Nativity Church built over the spot where Mary gave birth to Jesus.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas warned on Tuesday that his administration would "no longer deal" with Israel if a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a final peace deal fails.

"If the Arab-Palestinian initiative submitted to the Security Council to put an end to (Israeli) occupation doesn't pass, we will be forced to take the necessary political and legal decisions," Abbas was quoted as saying by the Algerian APS news agency.

Egypt kept its Rafah border crossing with Gaza open for a third day on Tuesday, state media said, after nearly 2,000 people used the terminal in the first two days.

The Rafah crossing, the only access point to the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel, opened on Sunday for only the second time in two months to allow people stranded in Egypt to enter the Palestinian enclave.

Around 630 Palestinians left Gaza and entered the Egyptian Sinai through the Rafah crossing on Sunday after Cairo authorized a temporary reopening of the border, a Palestinian official said. 

Negotiations on a draft U.N. resolution that sets terms for a final Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will take time, Jordan said Thursday, indicating that a Security Council vote was not imminent.

Jordan presented the measure on Wednesday to the U.N. Security Council on behalf of the Palestinians, who said they were open to negotiations on the text.

The Arab League said Thursday it hoped the United States would not veto a draft U.N. Security Council resolution laying out the terms of a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Jordan presented the draft Wednesday on behalf of the Palestinians, who have sought to avoid a clash with Washington by saying they are open to negotiations on the text.