Palestinian militants pitched a protest camp Wednesday on the site of a contested Jewish settlement, in an act of defiance as U.S. President Barack Obama began an historic visit.

Israel's plan to build in a strip of West Bank land outside Jerusalem called E1 has sparked a major international backlash, with experts saying it could wipe out hopes for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to visit the Jewish state in April to boost cooperation between the two countries, Israel's defense ministry said on Wednesday.

The plans were discussed during a telephone conversation between Hagel and new Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who took up the position on Monday, a ministry statement said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati tasked on Wednesday Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour with following up the Syrian bombardment of Lebanese border towns.

“The army is taking the necessary measures to control the border with the neighboring country,” Information Minister Walid Daouq quoted Miqati as saying after a cabinet session held at the Grand Serail.

"Peace must come to the Holy Land," Barack Obama said Wednesday as he landed in Israel for the first time as U.S. president in a bid to ease tensions with his hosts and to frame policy on Syria and Iran.

Israeli leaders showered Obama with personal praise for defending the Jewish state's security and existence, in a lavish welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport at the start of a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Moscow in a letter congratulating him on forming a new government, an Israeli official said Wednesday.

The invitation came as U.S. President Barack Obama was due in Israel on his first visit to the Jewish state since taking office more than four years ago.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks published Wednesday that his controversial comments branding Zionism a crime against humanity had been misunderstood.

Erdogan, who has often attacked Israeli policies, triggered a storm of protest about his comments on Zionism at a UN forum in Vienna last month.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel Tuesday and was expected to attend some meetings a day ahead of President Barack Obama's milestone visit, U.S. officials said.

"The secretary is in Israel, in advance of the president's arrival," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

Israel's new security cabinet will include just seven ministers, down from 15 in the previous administration, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

The composition of the ministerial committee for national security issues was agreed late Monday, at the first meeting of the new cabinet which took place shortly after Netanyahu's coalition government was sworn in.

Israeli forces on Tuesday razed four temporary structures in two West Bank settler outposts, police said, in an operation just 36 hours before a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

The overnight operation targeted structures in the outposts of Or Tzion and Ramat Migron near the West Bank city of Ramallah, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Syrian rebels on Tuesday denied government claims that they had used chemical weapons, blaming President Bashar Assad's regime instead for the deadly rocket attack that caused "breathing problems."

"We understand the army targeted Khan al-Assal (in Aleppo province) using a long-range missile, and our initial information says it may have contained chemical weapons," mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army spokesman Louay Muqdad told Agence France Presse.