Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington on March 2 where he is to discuss Iran and the peace process with U.S. President Barack Obama, his office said Monday.

The visit will take place as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry seeks to forge a framework agreement which will keep Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the table beyond a looming April deadline, despite little outward sign of any progress to date.

Negotiators are close to striking a long-awaited deal on compensation for Turkish victims of a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza aid flotilla four years ago, a Turkish official said Monday.

The May 2010 Israeli assault on the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara while it was in international waters sent relations between Israel and Turkey to an all-time low.

Suspected Jewish extremists punctured the tires of more than a dozen Palestinian-owned vehicles in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and sprayed a racist slogan, police said on Monday.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri said the incident occurred in Ein Aluza, near Silwan which lies just south of the Old City.

A knife-wielding assailant, apparently an Arab, stabbed and wounded an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man on Sunday in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, police said.

The attack took place near the Old City's Damascus Gate and "the assailant was apparently an Arab man" a police spokesman said, adding that an investigation was under way.

Israel on Sunday denounced an Iranian announcement that it was sending naval ships towards the United States as further evidence that loosening sanctions on Tehran was counterproductive.

The move to send warships to the Atlantic was announced by the commander of Iran's northern naval fleet on Saturday, who described it as a "message."

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman rounded on right-wing coalition partners Sunday, saying that snipes at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's peace efforts risked estranging "a true friend."

"The man has a record of 29 years in the Senate. You can see all of his votes, all of his speeches," Lieberman told Israeli army radio.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour stressed on Sunday the need for Lebanon to enjoy a strong army “capable of deterring any Israeli assault,” reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

He told the radio: “We should not compare Syria's actions towards Lebanon to Israeli assaults against the country.”

A Palestinian militant was in critical condition after an Israeli air strike on central Gaza on Sunday that the army said targeted a "key" figure responsible for cross-border rocket fire.

The strike was the latest in a growing number of violent incidents in and around Gaza since the start of 2014, prompting an Israeli warning it will continue to strike anyone threatening its citizens.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Saturday evening but caused no casualties or damage, the Israeli military said, the fourth such attack this week.

"No damage or injuries were reported" in the latest strike northwest of the Negev desert, the Israeli army statement said.

Most Israelis fear a boycott if peace talks with the Palestinians fail but agree with criticism of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over such a threat, a poll published Friday showed.

Israel's hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, however, rejected concerns over an economic boycott and took to Kerry's defense.