Israel's deputy defense minister ruled out Thursday any security compromise in the Jordan Valley, saying the Jewish state would not give in to U.S. pressure to accept "a bad deal".

Danny Danon, a hardline member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party, said Israel would never accept a Palestinian presence at the border crossing with Jordan.

An Israeli cabinet minister was visiting Turkey on Thursday on the first such trip since the rupture of relations between the two former allies over a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla three years ago.

Environment Minister Amir Peretz is attending an international U.N. conference in Istanbul about pollution in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Israeli army went on alert on the border with southern Lebanon on Thursday over fears that Hizbullah could retaliate over the assassination of a top official which it blamed on the Jewish state.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli troops carried out patrols along the border and monitored the Lebanese side.

Washington's top diplomat was holding talks on security with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in their first meeting since a fallout over a nuclear deal struck with Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed just before midnight (2200 GMT) on Wednesday for a trip aimed at giving momentum to the direct negotiations, which appear to have made little headway since they began under his patronage in late July.

A French report ruling out poisoning in Yasser Arafat's 2004 death, rather than laying to rest suspicions of an assassination, has prompted denial and incredulity from Palestinian officials and relatives of the late president.

The Palestinians, who have long cried foul, with some pointing the finger directly at Israel, cited Wednesday apparent inconsistencies between the French findings and separate ones from Switzerland and Russia that gave currency to alleged poisoning by polonium.

President Michel Suleiman condemned on Wednesday the assassination of Hizbullah official Hassan Laqqis, saying it is part of an Israeli plot against Lebanon.

He said in a statement: “The assassination is a new chapter in Israel's attempts to create sectarian strife and target civil peace.”

The widow of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Wednesday she was still convinced he was poisoned, after French experts ruled out the theory that he had been assassinated.

"I'm still completely convinced that the martyr Arafat did not die a natural death, and I will keep trying to get to the truth," Suha Arafat told AFP.

The Council of Maronite Bishops warned on Wednesday against turning Lebanon into the captive of international policies, saying the political paralysis was leading to the state's “disintegration.”

“Some parties abroad have dealt with Lebanon as if it was not a sovereign state,” the bishops said following their monthly meeting under Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

A group of 36 NGOs urged Israel Wednesday to stop demolishing Palestinian homes, hours ahead of a Middle East visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry aimed at revitalizing peace talks.

"Since the resumption of the peace process in July, Israel has destroyed 207 Palestinian homes and property in the occupied West Bank, displacing 311 Palestinians, over half of whom are children," rights groups and charities including Oxfam, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement.

A prominent Hizbullah military official was assassinated at midnight on Wednesday near his residence in Hadath in Beirut's southern suburbs.

“Around 12 a.m. Hajj Hassan Hollo al-Laqqis was assassinated near his house in Sainte Thérèse neighborhood in Hadath while he was on his way back from his work,” a statement issued by Hizbullah's press office said.