Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday apologized to Turkey for a deadly 2010 flotilla raid and announced a full resumption of diplomatic ties as well as compensation for the families of those killed, his office said.

The breakthrough, which ends a nearly three-year bitter diplomatic rift, was engineered by U.S. President Barack Obama at the tail end of a historic three-day visit to the Holy Land, the first of his presidency.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday visited Bethlehem's Nativity Church built on the site where tradition says Jesus was born, at the end of a three-day trip to Israel and the West Bank.

The visit took place later than expected because of an unexpected sandstorm which forced the president to travel by motorcade from Jerusalem rather than by helicopter as planned.

Armed Bedouin tribesmen in Egypt's Sinai peninsula abducted on Friday two tourists, an Israeli man and a Norwegian woman, as they traveled between two beach resorts, police said.

Six gunmen intercepted the tourists' car and forced them into their truck, the officials said. The pair had been traveling between the southern resort of Taba, on the border with Israel, and Dahab.

Hizbullah slammed on Friday U.S. President Barack Obama's “appeasement” speech in Israel, considering that his remarks are to “satisfy” the Jewish state.

“Obama's speech is similar to all the hostile and boring stances made by the U.S.,” Hizbullah said in a statement.

A hardline Islamist group claimed a rocket attack against southern Israel on Thursday, in a statement that condemned a historic visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to the region.

In a statement headlined "The demolition of Sderot by rocket bombardment in reaction to the visit of the dog Obama," the Salafist Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis group said it was responsible for an attack launched from Gaza.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday demanded that foreign governments brand Hizbullah a "terrorist organization," slamming the party for “its attacks on Israelis”.

"Every country that values justice should call Hizbullah what it truly is -- a terrorist organization," Obama said in a major speech in Israel, in remarks apparently aimed at the European Union which has declined to put the group on a list of terrorist movements.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Thursday slammed violence against civilians, including Gaza rocket fire after two projectiles hit Israel as U.S. President Barack Obama visits.

"We condemn violence against civilians, whatever its source, including the firing of rockets," political adviser Nimr Hammad quoted Abbas as saying.

Israel welcomes assurances U.S. President Barack Obama gave on the Iranian nuclear program on his milestone visit to the Jewish state, a cabinet minister said on Thursday.

"The president is firmly committed to acting against Iran's nuclear program and to strengthening military, diplomatic and intelligence cooperation between the two countries," newly sworn-in Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said.

Two rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Thursday hit southern Israel as U.S. President Barack Obama was visiting the Jewish state, police said.

"One exploded in the back yard of a house in Sderot, causing damage, and the second landed in a field," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse, referring to a town very close to the Gaza border, which was visited by Obama on a previous trip in 2008 when he was a senator.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned the Damascus regime it would be held accountable for any use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria in a move which would spark an international response.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Obama said the use of chemical agents against the Syrian people would be a "grave and tragic mistake" and a "game-changer."