U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday as he pushed a framework for Middle East peace talks, amid growing tension with the Palestinians.

The two met in Jerusalem, launching what is expected to be an intense four days of shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Israeli former prime minister Ariel Sharon's health deteriorated on Thursday, with his "vital organs" failing, said the hospital where he has been housed in a comatose state for eight years.

"In the last few days, we have seen a gradual decline in the functioning of Ariel Sharon's vital organs, which are essential for his survival," Tel Hashomer hospital director Zeev Rotstein told Israeli public radio.

Israeli army intensified on Thursday patrols along the border with Lebanon and began erecting earth mounds in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

According to the state-run National News Agency, the Israeli army carried out patrols off al-Abbasiyeh and Ghajar, reaching all the way to Kfarshouba hills as soldiers monitored the area.

An 85-year-old Palestinian died overnight after inhaling tear gas used by the Israeli army to disperse a march near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said Thursday.

Said Nassar died in hospital in Nablus after breathing in the gas fired by Israeli security forces on Wednesday during a march in the village of Kfar Qaddum.

The health of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for nearly eight years, worsened on Wednesday, Israeli media reported.

The 85-year-old, who is at the Tel Hashomer hospital in the city of Tel Aviv, was suffering from "serious kidney problems" after undergoing surgery, army radio said.

Israeli MPs handed President Shimon Peres a petition on Wednesday urging the United States to release imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, after reports Washington spied on its own allies.

"Pollard has served 29 years in prison for the severe offences he committed," reads the petition, which was signed by 106 of the 120 members of the Israeli parliament and addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama. "The conditions have ripened for his release."

Israel and the Palestinians sharpened their rhetoric as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed to the region Wednesday hoping to nudge the two sides towards a peace framework.

The latest U.S. quest for a long-elusive peace deal has shown little sign of progress since Kerry revived direct talks in July, and this week leaders from both sides questioned the other's commitment to ending the decades-old conflict.

Before they were evicted, the Israeli settlers threw bottles of urine, attacked children and poisoned a horse, according to Palestinian residents in Hebron- who now fear their former neighbors will return.

When Israeli soldiers evicted the settlers in 2008 and took over the Rajabi building in the West Bank city -- which is still home to hundreds of radical Israeli settlers -- even the daily drag of inspections seemed civilized by comparison.

An Israeli unit crossed on Tuesday the technical border fence in the Wadi al-Qatmoun region near the southern town of Rmeish.

The unit, consisting of three Merkava tanks, carried out patrol in the area.

Israeli forces killed 27 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2013, a human rights watchdog has said, three times the figure recorded last year.

It was also the first time in 10 years more Palestinians were killed in the West Bank than in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in 2013, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said.