An Israeli committee gave final approval on Wednesday to plans to build 2,610 new homes in Givat HaMatos, a settlement suburb of annexed east Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO told AFP.

"I just spoke with the deputy mayor and they told me the 2,610 units have been approved," said Danny Seidemann, head of Terrestrial Jerusalem.

Malaysia has removed quotas and other restrictions on Christians from the Muslim majority nation making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, government and church officials said.

The move comes after a string of clashes in recent years between the government and the Christian minority and ahead of national polls which must be held by the middle of next year.

The United States Tuesday slammed plans being mulled by Israel to build nearly 5,000 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, saying it would run "counter to the cause of peace."

"We are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in her strongest remarks in recent days on the settlement issue.

Israeli planning committees are to weigh several plans for nearly 5,000 new settler homes in neighborhoods of annexed east Jerusalem this week, with at least one major project set for final approval.

Non-governmental groups Peace Now and Terrestrial Jerusalem, which track settlement construction, said Jerusalem municipal and district committees will consider four projects this week in the Givat HaMatos and Gilo neighborhoods.

The Palestinian leadership said on Monday it will seek a U.N. Security Council meeting on Israeli plans to build new settlers homes on occupied territory.

The leadership is about to take "important and necessary measures against Israel's settlement building, including recourse to the U.N. Security Council, to prevent implementation of these decisions," president Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

Israel on Monday gave the green light for developers to go ahead with controversial plans to build 1,500 settler homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the interior ministry told AFP.

Spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said the ministry's planning committee had told the applicants to trim their request to build 1,600 new housing units at Ramat Shlomo to 1,500 and resubmit it "for final approval".

Israeli naval forces shot and wounded a Palestinian fisherman in waters off the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, sources on both sides said.

Nizar Aayesh, head of the Gaza fishermen's union, said the man was wounded when navy gunfire hit his boat after which he was taken to hospital in the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon.

Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, tendered his official resignation on Sunday over fraud and breach of trust charges filed against him.

Lieberman's resignation goes into effect Tuesday. He said he hopes to take "the briefest possible leave."

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a key ally of the premier, resigned on Friday after having been charged with breach of trust, barely five weeks ahead of general elections.

"I am not legally bound to submit my resignation... but I have decided to step down from my duties as foreign minister and deputy premier," the controversial ultra-nationalist leader said in a statement.

Israel's High Court ordered the military on Thursday to reconsider the route of a portion of its security barrier, which was to pass through the West Bank village of Battir, an environmental NGO said.

"The High Court this afternoon... ordered the military to present an alternative plan within 90 days," the Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) group said.