Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah urged rival factions to set aside their differences, even as protesters gave him a cool reception in war-battered Gaza on Wednesday.

It was only Hamdallah's second visit to the Gaza Strip since a unity government agreed on by rivals Fatah and Hamas took office last June.

U.S. President Barack Obama insisted Tuesday that his disagreement with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu represents a substantial policy difference and not a personal vendetta.

As the Israeli premier works to build a new coalition government at home, he faces one of the worst confrontations in his stormy relationship with the White House.

The top Republican in Congress said Tuesday he was "shocked" by a report that Israel spied on Iranian nuclear talks but insisted he did not know whether information was shared with U.S. lawmakers.

The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday that in addition to Israelis spying on the highly-sensitive negotiations between Tehran and world powers, details were back-channelled to U.S. legislators in an effort to sabotage the deal intended to limit Iran's nuclear program.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday that his disagreement with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to pursue a Middle East peace deal was substantive, not personal.

Netanyahu's declaration just ahead of his latest election victory that he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state angered the White House, which is still seeking a "two state" solution to the conflict.

An Israeli court on Tuesday jailed for 15-and-a-half years a Palestinian caught fighting in Gaza during last summer's 50-day war between Israel and Hamas.

A transcript of proceedings in the Beersheba district court, in southern Israel, said that Mohammed Abu Zaraj, born in 1991, was one of a squad of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, lying in ambush for advancing Israeli troops on July 27. 

An Israeli cabinet minister visiting Paris warned Tuesday against concluding a "bad accord" on Iran's nuclear program, telling French daily Le Monde his country shares France's wariness of trusting Tehran.

"We believe it would be a bad accord with severe gaps in it," said Israeli Intelligence Minister Youval Steinitz, who met French President Francois Hollande's diplomatic adviser on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Tuesday facing one of Israel's worst-ever confrontations with the White House, which has shown absolutely no sign of accepting his post-election attempts at contrition.

Just a week after winning a shock election victory, earning a third consecutive term in office, he remains mired in a diplomatic crisis with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said on Tuesday that his longtime friend, slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, confided to him that he had discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against him.

“Hariri was driving his car and I was sitting next to him when he suddenly turned towards me and said: 'You know Fouad, by now we have discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against me',” Saniora told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Israel has spied on Iran's nuclear talks with the United States and other major powers, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Israel quickly dismissed the report as "not true", and denied spying on the United States.

U.S. President Barack Obama's chief of staff rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to distance himself from his comments rejecting Palestinian statehood, telling an Israel advocacy group Monday that the U.S. can't just overlook what Netanyahu said on the eve of his re-election.

"An occupation that has lasted more than 50 years must end," White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said.