An Islamic Jihad militant was killed near Gaza City on Wednesday in what medics and his family said was an Israeli drone strike.

But the Israeli military denied carrying out any strike on Gaza, with a spokeswoman saying she was unaware of any such incidents in the area.

An Israeli army unit crossed the barbed wire along the border with southern Lebanon on Wednesday, combing the area and firing smoke grenades, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the 12-member unit entered around 50 meters near the border town of Mais al-Jabal.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has said Hizbullah did not possess some components of supersonic Yakhont rockets as claimed by U.S. officials.

Yaalon told reporters on Tuesday that as far as Israel knew, Hizbullah did not possess the weapon. 

Middle East peace talks could be extended beyond their April deadline, Israel's defense minister said Tuesday, insisting current negotiations aimed solely at providing a framework for final talks.

The remarks came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry left following four days of intense meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, during which he failed to reach agreement on a framework to guide the talks forward.

Palestinians beat and detained several Israeli settlers who had sparked clashes after entering Qusra village near the West Bank city of Nablus Tuesday, sources on both sides said.

At one point, Israeli soldiers were negotiating the release of some 13 settlers from a house in the village where they were being held, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for a third straight day of protests against Israel's immigration policies.

Migrants, most of them fleeing Eritrea or Sudan, held banners that read "We are refugees," and "No more prison," as they marched on Western embassies and the offices of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).

A plan for 272 new homes in West Bank settlements was approved on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's departure Monday, Israel's Peace Now movement said.

Israel had been expected to announce new settlement plans alongside the release of Palestinian prisoners last week -- as it did during previous releases -- in a bid to ease the concerns of hardliners as it engages in U.S.-brokered peace talks.

Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated outside Western embassies in Tel Aviv on Monday in a second day of mass protests against Israel's immigration policies.

The migrants, primarily from Eritrea and Sudan, marched from downtown Tel Aviv to the embassies, calling for help in the face of Israel's refusal to grant them refugee status and its detention without trial of hundreds of asylum seekers.

Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya reached out to West Bank rivals Fatah on Monday, saying its members would be allowed back into Gaza, in efforts to promote Palestinian reconciliation.

"The (Hamas) government will allow all Fatah members who are from Gaza and who left the Strip (in 2007) to return, without any preconditions," apart from those accused of killing Hamas members during intense factional fighting that year, Haniya said.

After four days of intense diplomacy, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed home Monday, insisting progress had been made despite failing to agree a framework to guide Israeli-Palestinian talks.

On his 10th visit to the region as U.S. top diplomat, Kerry spent hours locked in separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.