Israel on Wednesday defended a decision to turn away two Moroccan MPs trying to enter the West Bank from Jordan earlier this week saying they did not have entry visas.

"Every Moroccan citizen, whether or not they are part of a delegation, needs a visa to enter the West Bank via Israel," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Agence France Presse.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird hailed his country's "special friendship" with Israel in Jerusalem talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

The two men "reaffirmed the close and special friendship that underpins the bilateral relationship between our two countries," a joint statement said.

An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced an extreme rightwing U.S.-born Jewish settler to two life terms in prison for the murder of two Palestinians in 1997.

Jack Teitel, 40, was found guilty in January of murdering a bus driver and a shepherd, as well as of two separate attempted murders, illegal possession of weapons and incitement to violence.

An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced an Arab citizen of Israel to seven years in prison on charges of spying for Hizbullah.

A court document says Milad Khatib was convicted of being in contact with a foreign agent and assisting an enemy in wartime. It says he confessed to the charges against him as part of a plea bargain.

Palestinian journalists have demanded that authorities restrict the movement of Israeli reporters in the West Bank, a local media worker said Tuesday.

A media union urged president Mahmoud Abbas in a letter to block Israeli reporters from accessing Palestinian-controlled West Bank territory, in response to Israel's own restrictions on the movement of Palestinian reporters.

Resuming frozen negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians must be done 'right' rather than being rushed, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday after three days of talks with the region's leaders.

"Each of the leaders that I met with assured me that they will put their best effort into trying to move forward," he said, adding: "Doing it right is more important than doing it quickly."

An explosive device blew up near the border in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, damaging an Israeli military vehicle, Palestinian witnesses and the army said.

"For the first since since Operation Pillar of Defense, an IDF (army) vehicle was damaged by an explosion of a concealed device laid by terrorists" in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, an army statement said, referring to Israel's eight-day bombardment of the enclave in November.

Israel's Housing Minister Uri Ariel on Tuesday said that 50 new homes would be built in annexed east Jerusalem to house Holocaust survivors.

"These 50 homes, which will be added to those existing homes for the elderly in east Talpiot, will be earmarked for Holocaust survivors," he told public radio in an announcement made the day after Israel marked Holocaust Memorial Day.

Turkey has delayed the start of talks this week with Israel over compensation that the Jewish state will pay to victims of a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, the government said.

"The compensation meeting with Israel has been delayed to April 21 or 22," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting late Monday.

An Arab ministerial committee met on Monday in Qatar to discuss ways of reviving the stalled peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said.

The meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee is being attended by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, and is being chaired by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.