Pope Francis is to make a brief visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories from May 25, his first to the Holy Land, Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said on Thursday.

According to the top-selling daily, which published what it said was a preliminary papal program, Israeli authorities are unhappy with the brevity of the 48-hour visit and the fact that the prelate will not celebrate mass in Israel, but in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Christ's traditional birthplace.

Israel on Thursday urged China and other world powers to keep up pressure on Iran as talks on implementing a landmark nuclear deal were set to resume in Geneva.

"The world, in which China is a major player, should help the Iranian people to divorce themselves from the policies of threats and hostilities to prevent (Iran) from acquiring nuclear capability," Israeli President Shimon Peres said after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Jerusalem.

The Palestinians on Thursday accused Israel of a "dangerous escalation" after the army killed two people in the West Bank, calling the violence a deliberate attempt to scupper peace talks.

"This dangerous Israeli escalation aims to thwart American and international efforts to move forward with the peace process, and leads the negotiations to a dead end," presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement published by the official WAFA news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue "developing" settlements following reports of U.S. pressure ahead of a fresh round of Palestinian prisoner releases due later this month.

"We will not stop, even for a moment, building our country and becoming stronger, and developing... the settlement enterprise," he told members of his rightwing Likud faction in remarks broadcast on army radio on Thursday.

Israel is planning to launch a short and decisive war against Hizbullah, reported the World Tribune U.S. news service according to intelligence information.

It said that the war would be aimed destroying the party's strategic capabilities.

Mideast peace efforts are being "hampered" by Israeli settlement construction, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said Wednesday in his traditional Christmas message.

"The Israeli-Palestinian talks resumed in late July, after three years of interruption, but the efforts are hampered by the continuous building of Israeli settlements," said Fuad Twal, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land.

Award-winning Palestinian human rights campaigner Iyad Sarraj has died of cancer aged 70, colleagues and relatives said on Wednesday.

"Dr Iyad Sarraj passed away last night," Tuesday, reported the website of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which he founded in 1990.

Israel's attorney general has decided not to appeal against last month's acquittal of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on corruption charges, the justice ministry said on Wednesday.

"Following the verdict, the attorney general (Yehuda Weinstein) was required to address the question of whether to file an appeal on behalf of the state, and, to that end, he heard opinions and held a number of discussions," the ministry said.

Military Examining Magistrate Imad al-Zain issued on Wednesday an arrest warrant against a Lebanese on charges of attempting to collaborate with Israel.

The state-run National News Agency reported that al-Zain questioned a citizen identified by his initials as F. Y.

Nearly 200 African asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally demonstrated Tuesday in Jerusalem against being housed at a brand-new open facility they walked out of two days earlier.

The men had left the Holot facility in southern Israel on Sunday night and made their way to the snow-struck city on foot and by bus.