The United States warned Israel on Thursday that its reported plans to build additional settlement housing in the West Bank were "counterproductive."

"As the president said, Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace and that an independent Palestine must be viable, with real borders that have to be drawn," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

Syria will "respond immediately" to any new Israeli attack against its territory, its deputy foreign minister told Agence France Presse on Thursday, after two reported Israeli strikes on military targets last week.

"The instruction has been made to respond immediately to any new Israeli attack without (additional) instruction from any higher leadership, and our retaliation will be strong and will be painful against Israel," Faisal Muqdad said.

Israel on Thursday formally apologized to Cairo after police violence against Egyptian diplomats during the Holy Fire ceremony at Jerusalem's Holy Sepulcher church on Orthodox Easter.

"I presented on our behalf a formal apology during a meeting with an Egyptian diplomat because in incidents like this it is good to lower the flames," Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin told public radio.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, during a five day visit that the newly installed Chinese leader said had already "yielded rich fruits".

Netanyahu met Xi after the Israeli leader witnessed with China's Premier Li Keqiang the signing of a series of trade and cultural deals the previous day.

Israel has warned the United States that Russia plans to sell sophisticated missile systems to Syria that would complicate any foreign intervention there, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Journal reported late Wednesday that Israel had provided information to Washington about the imminent sale to Syria of Russian S-300 missile batteries, advanced ground-to-air weapons that can take out aircraft or guided missiles.

Syria will "give Hizbullah everything" in recognition of its support and will follow the militant group's model of "resistance" against Israel, al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday quoted President Bashar Assad as saying.

His comment reportedly came during meetings with Lebanese visitors in Damascus and appeared intended to refute any suggestion that Israeli raids on Syrian targets would halt assistance to Hizbullah.

Israeli plans to build 300 new homes in a West Bank settlement near Ramallah prove that Israel is trying to "sabotage" U.S. efforts to revive peace talks, a top Palestinian official said on Thursday.

"We condemn this new decision which is proof that the Israeli government wants to sabotage and ruin the U.S. administration's efforts to revive the peace process," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told Agence France Presse.

The United Nations on Wednesday pulled peacekeepers back from an observation post in the Golan Heights ceasefire zone where four Philippine troops were abducted by Syrian rebels, a spokesman said.

The move came as countries which contribute troops to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) expressed renewed concern about security in the zone between Israel and war-stricken Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday announced he was returning to Israel in late May, as he pursues intensive negotiations to try to kickstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Speaking at the start of talks with Israeli chief negotiator Tzipi Livni in Rome, Kerry said that all sides "are working through a threshold of questions" with a new "seriousness of purpose."

Israel's minister of religion will seek to amend the law in order to allow Jews to pray at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, a top ministry official said on Wednesday.

Speaking to a parliamentary committee, ministry director Elhanan Glat said Naftali Bennett, the minister responsible for the religion portfolio, was likely to seek government approval for such a change.