Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday apologized to Turkey for a deadly 2010 flotilla raid and announced a full resumption of diplomatic ties as well as compensation for the families of those killed, his office said.

The breakthrough, which ends a nearly three-year bitter diplomatic rift, was engineered by U.S. President Barack Obama at the tail end of a historic three-day visit to the Holy Land, the first of his presidency.

Turkey welcomed on Friday Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan's ceasefire call as a crucial step towards peace, but obstacles remained in resolving a conflict that has torn the country for nearly three decades and killed around 45,000 people.

"This is the Spring of Turkey," declared the headline of liberal Taraf daily, printed on a picture showing the vast crowd of people who gathered on Thursday in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir to hear the message from jailed Ocalan.

The United States on Thursday welcomed a call from the jailed rebel leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urging his fighters to lay down their arms as a "positive step."

"This violence has claimed too many lives and too many futures, and must end," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

Jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan called Thursday for a ceasefire, telling his fighters to lay down their arms and withdraw from Turkey, raising hopes for an end to a three-decade conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

"We are at a stage where guns should be silenced," Ocalan said in a letter written from his isolated island prison cell and read out by a pro-Kurdish lawmaker to vast crowds in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

Jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan was set to call a "historic" ceasefire on Thursday, raising expectations for an end to a three-decade conflict with Turkey that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

The widely anticipated ceasefire call is to come in a letter penned by the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from his isolated island prison cell, and millions of people nationwide are set to tune in to hear his words read out on television and radio.

A Turkish minister said Wednesday that twin attacks in Ankara may have been the work of the same radical Marxist group which claimed a suicide bombing against the U.S. embassy in February.

One person was slightly wounded in simultaneous grenade and rocket attacks late Tuesday against the justice ministry and the headquarters of the ruling ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Despite their longstanding wish for a single homeland called Kurdistan, the Kurds are today scattered over four countries spanning half a million square kilometers: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Originally of Indo-European origin, the Kurds trace their roots back to the Medes of ancient Persia. Mainly Sunni Muslim, they live in mountainous regions straddling the four countries, and have kept their language, culture and tribal system.

Syria's state media on Wednesday slammed rebel forces for electing Ghassan Hitto as opposition premier, saying he was a pawn of foreign nations complicit in a "conspiracy" against Syria.

Al-Watan daily said Hitto had been "appointed" by Turkey and Qatar, which both back the uprising against President Bashar Assad, along with the Muslim Brotherhood organization.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks published Wednesday that his controversial comments branding Zionism a crime against humanity had been misunderstood.

Erdogan, who has often attacked Israeli policies, triggered a storm of protest about his comments on Zionism at a UN forum in Vienna last month.

Turkey's armed Kurdish rebellion is poised to enter a historic ceasefire on Thursday, the Kurdish New Year, at the command of a single man only a handful of people have seen since 1999.

After months of meticulous planning with Turkey's intelligence agency, jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has outlined a "historic" call for a ceasefire to be made on Thursday, Kurdish lawmakers told reporters after meeting him on Monday.