Hundreds of Jordanians joined a rally Friday organized by the Muslim Brotherhood to denounce Israeli plans to enshrine in law the country's status as the national Jewish homeland.

An estimated 1,500 protesters set off from the Husseini mosque in downtown Amman holding up signs saying "Al-Aqsa is in danger".

Already struggling under the weight of an Israeli blockade, Gazans are now feeling the effects of an Egyptian exclusion zone along their shared border that has sent prices soaring.

France's foreign minister Friday urged a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within two years, as French MPs debated a symbolic motion to recognize Palestine as a state.

Laurent Fabius said the United Nations Security Council was working on a resolution to relaunch and conclude talks. "A deadline of two years is the one most often mentioned and the French government can agree with this figure," he told MPs.

Two Frenchmen stood trial Thursday over a hit-and-run road accident in Tel Aviv that killed a young Israeli woman and sparked outrage in Israel after the pair fled to France. 

Eric Robic, who has confessed to being behind the wheel at the time of the 2011 tragedy, faces charges of aggravated manslaughter and not providing aid to a person in distress.

Israel's Shin Bet security service said Thursday it had uncovered a vast Hamas network in the West Bank that was planning large-scale attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem.

The Shin Bet said it arrested more than 30 Hamas militants who planned to kidnap Israelis and carry out attacks against Jerusalem's light rail and its largest soccer stadium, among other targets. It said the men were trained and recruited in Jordan and Turkey and that various arms and explosives were recovered.

As the wind whistles through gaping holes in her ruined house, 62-year-old Suad al-Zaza and her daughter huddle together for warmth on a bed made of a wooden door laid on breeze blocks.

"I wake up cold, I sleep on the bed, afraid that it will break. I'm covered with two blankets that we were given," she says as rain drips through the ceiling inside the wreckage of her home in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood. 

Israel is defying the world by "undermining" prospects for a two state solution through its settlements policy, South African President Jacob Zuma said Wednesday as he welcomed visiting Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.

"The reality is that the overwhelming majority in the world agrees with the position of two states living side by side in peace, but we have a problem of a country that is defying all of that," said Zuma.

Israel on Wednesday revoked the residency rights of the widow of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, drawing condemnation from human rights groups.

The move came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would seek broad powers to rescind the residency and welfare rights of any Palestinian resident of Israel or annexed east Jerusalem if they or their relatives participated in unrest.

Egypt reopened the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Wednesday for the first time since its closure in late October after a bombing in the Sinai Peninsula, officials said.

The crossing, which is the only access point to the Palestinian territory not controlled by Israel, will open for four hours on Wednesday and Thursday, a government official said.

The Palestinian leadership on Tuesday slammed the Israeli government's approval of a law determining the country's status as the national Jewish homeland, saying it "killed" Middle East peace prospects.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee expressed in a statement its "strong condemnation and rejection of this law".