An Arab ministerial committee charged with monitoring the Middle East peace process blamed Israel for the impasse in negotiations with the Palestinians after a Tuesday meeting in Kuwait.

"Israel is responsible for the deep crisis in negotiations because of its intensifying of settlements (construction), repeated attacks against the sacred Al-Aqsa mosque (in Jerusalem), seizing of Palestinian lands, and strengthening the blockade against Gaza," it said in a statement.

At odds with ally Washington over an emerging nuclear agreement with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will on Wednesday take his campaign against the deal to Moscow.

Russia is a member of the P5+1 group -- alongside the United States, China, France, Britain and Germany -- which has been struggling to reach a deal to freeze or curb Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for some relief from international sanctions.

A granddaughter of Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya has returned to Gaza after being hospitalized in Israel in a critical condition, Palestinian sources said Tuesday.

Medics in Gaza had on Monday reported that Amal Haniya, aged one, was sent to Israel for treatment for a serious infection of the digestive tract which has affected her nervous system.

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Rokn Abadi confirmed the death of Iranian cultural adviser Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ansari in the twin blasts near the Iranian embassy in Beirut on Tuesday.

He told al-Manar television that al-Ansari died from wounds he sustained in the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he would not be able to visit Israel over the coming weekend, despite an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Instead, Kerry said he would try to visit Israel again after the November 28 Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday invited Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to address the Israeli parliament and publicly recognize Jewish links to the land of Israel.

"I call on him from here: let's break the deadlock. Come to the Israeli Knesset and I'll come to Ramallah," the Palestinian leader's West Bank headquarters.

Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers clashed in the northern West Bank on Monday before Israeli troops intervened, with 10 people treated for rubber bullet wounds, medical sources said.

Abdel Hafith Wadi, head of the Qusra village council near the northern city of Nablus, said the confrontation erupted as villagers found that 25 olive trees had been cut down in an act of vandalism allegedly carried out by residents of the nearby Esh Kodesh settlement outpost.

A granddaughter of Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya has been hospitalized in Israel in critical condition, Palestinian sources said Monday.

Amal Haniya, aged one, suffers from a serious infection of the digestive tract which has affected her nervous system, according to Gaza medical sources.

Saudi Arabia on Monday ruled out any contact with Israel, with which it has no diplomatic ties, after a British newspaper reported that the two countries could coordinate efforts against Iran.

The kingdom, which is Iran's chief regional rival, "has no relations or contacts with Israel of any kind or at any level," said a foreign ministry spokesman, quoted by state news agency SPA.

Israel has been secretly holding a suspected al-Qaida activist without trial for more than three years, legal documents showed on Monday after the suspect petitioned a court for his release.

According to court documents seen by Agence France Presse, the Israeli security establishment told the high court ahead of a Monday hearing it believed that Samer Al-Barq is "an activist in the global terror group al-Qaida, with extensive knowledge in non-conventional arms, especially biological weapons".