U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for their leadership in agreeing to resume peace talks, the White House said.

In separate statements with very similar wording following phone calls with the two men, Obama praised their "leadership and courage" in sending negotiators back to the table this week in Washington for the first time in three years.

Hundreds of people protested in the Negev desert of southern Israel on Thursday against Israeli plans to resettle up to 40,000 Bedouin and demolish 40 villages in the region.

Israeli Arabs and Jews gathered at a highway junction near the town of Beersheba, holding up slogans demanding the government "drop" the plans, as horse-mounted police in riot gear looked on, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Hizbullah has set up a large banner near the border with Israel with the phrase "we are coming" in Arabic and Hebrew, the state-run National News Agency reported on Thursday.

"The banner was placed at the western side of al-Wazzani river mouth, near the border with Israel,” the NNA detailed.

Israel on Thursday charged an ultra-Orthodox Jew with spying for Iran, the Jewish state's internal security service said.

The man belonged to Neturei Karta, an ultra-Orthodox group opposed to the existence of the state of Israel, and he is suspected by Shin Bet internal security of having contacted Iran's embassy in Berlin in 2011 to offer intelligence.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators' stated goal of reaching a comprehensive peace deal inside nine months is realistic, the European Union's top diplomat said Wednesday, painting the bloc as a "reliable friend" to both sides.

"I firmly believe that a final end to this conflict is within reach," Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

Middle East peace talks, which resumed in Washington after a three-year break are doomed to fail, Palestinian analysts said on Wednesday, after negotiators set a nine-month target for an agreement.

Despite Israel announcing the release of 104 prisoners as a confidence-building measure, analysts said that ordinary Palestinians would take little interest in the talks, which they would regard as a sop to Washington.

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday said he was "hopeful" that peace talks with Palestinians will lead to a two-state solution and bring prosperity to the Middle East.

"As an Israeli I am now very hopeful because the peace process was renewed between the Palestinians and ourselves," he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

Austria defended on Wednesday its controversial decision to withdraw from the U.N. peacekeeping force on the Golan Heights, as its last soldiers returned home ending a nearly 40-year mission.

"The (U.N.) blue helmet force's impartiality is no longer undisputed by partners on the ground, and we can neither ensure the soldiers' supply nor their safety," Defense Minister Gerald Klug told the Austria Press Agency.

The Philippines said Wednesday it would likely keep its 340 soldiers in the Golan Heights as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force, amid improved security for the troops.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters the U.N. was close to fulfilling three conditions on upgrading safety set by the Philippines that would allow the Filipino soldiers to stay beyond August 11.

French President Francois Hollande will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories by the end of the year, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday, as a drive to reach a Middle East peace deal gathers pace.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are currently in Washington as part of a fresh U.S.-led initiative to negotiate a peace deal between the two sides after a three-year hiatus.