Israeli presidential candidate Benjamin Ben Eliezer said on Saturday that he was quitting the race three days ahead of the vote after being questioned by police over corruption allegations.

Ben Eliezer, 78, is a member of the Labor party, who was a general in the military and later served in several cabinet posts.

Israel's government is boycotting its Palestinian counterpart with relations to a new low, and when their two presidents join Pope Francis in a Vatican prayer for peace on Sunday politics are likely to be absent.

Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas have been acquaintances for years and held peace talks together, and have their separate reasons for honoring the pope's desire to keep the weekend event as free of controversy as possible.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso is to formally sign a controversial EU-Israel research program with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit starting Sunday.

The outgoing head of the European Union executive will hold talks with Netanyahu on Sunday before taking part in a signing ceremony the next day allowing Israel to become the only non-European country to benefit from the EU's Horizon 2020 scientific research program.

Australia has decided to remove the term "occupied" when referring to East Jerusalem in a move blasted by an opposition party leader Friday as "inflammatory" and "at odds with the peace process.”

The issue flared in the upper house Senate this week with Attorney-General George Brandis issuing a statement to clarify Canberra's stance on the controversial question of the legality of settler homes.

The European Union said Thursday it was "deeply disappointed" after Israel unveiled plans to build another 3,200 settler homes, and called for the decision to be reversed, as the U.N. urged Israel to respect “international law.”

Tenders for nearly 1,500 new settlement houses and plans to advance some 1,800 others were issued in retaliation for the formation of a Palestinian unity government backed by Hamas and the international community.

The Israeli government on Thursday ordered officials to move forward with plans for another 1,800 settler homes, just hours after issuing tenders for 1,500 housing units, an official said.

"The political echelon has ordered the Civil Administration to advance 1,800 new (housing) units," the Israeli official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity, referring to a defense ministry unit responsible for all West Bank planning issues.

The Palestinians said Thursday they would appeal to the United Nations after Israel announced plans for 1,500 new settler homes in response to the formation of a Hamas-backed unity government.

The new government of technocrats is recognized by both the European Union and the United States but Israel has vowed to boycott what it says is a "government of terror" supported by its Islamist foe.

Speaker Nabih Berri urged the United States to play a “fair and balanced role” in managing the dispute between Lebanon and Israel over the two countries' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

According to As Safir newspaper published on Thursday, Berri called on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting between the two officials to seek to carry out a balanced role between Lebanon and Israel “if the U.S. was interested to become an investor in the Lebanese offshore oil in the future.”

Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah called Wednesday for international pressure on Israel to let Palestinians in annexed east Jerusalem vote in an upcoming general election.

Hamdallah's new unity government is tasked with organizing parliamentary and presidential elections in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by the end of the year.

A row over the new Palestinian government is driving yet another wedge into already shaky ties between Israel and the U.S. as the once sacrosanct relationship comes under severe strain, analysts say.

Barely had the State Department said it would work with the new "interim technocratic government," just hours after it was sworn in Monday by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, when Israeli rage roared across from the Levant.