EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Sunday urged Israel to annul plans to build 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying it would be "an obstacle to peace.”

"The European Union has repeatedly stated that all settlement construction is illegal under international law and constitutes an obstacle to peace," Ashton said in a statement.

France on Saturday warned Israel not to go through with a plan for 3,000 settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, arguing it would constitute a serious obstacle to a peace deal with the Palestinians.

An Israeli official earlier confirmed a report in the Haaretz newspaper that the authorities were planning to build the new settlements in response to a historic U.N. vote Thursday recognizing Palestine as a non-member state of the world body.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called Saturday for an "independent Palestinian state" and urged the international community not to allow Israel to undermine peace efforts in the Middle East.

Davutoglu, speaking at the opening of the Turkish-Arab Forum in Istanbul, welcomed the upgrading of the Palestinians' status at the United Nations as a "significant step."

A Palestinian shot by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday has died of his wounds, a Palestinian medical official said.

The official said that Mahmud Jarghun, 21, died early on Saturday morning at a hospital near the town of Rafah, of a gunshot wound to the pelvis.

The United States on Friday criticized Israel's decision to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling it a setback for peace.

The White House earlier called the move -- which came in response to a historic vote in the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to recognize Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state -- "counterproductive."

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Friday for a return to peace talks, but slammed Israel's latest settlement plans in reaction to a United Nations vote recognizing Palestine as a non-member state.

"I've said a thousand times that we want to resume negotiations and we are ready to do it," Abbas told reporters in New York.

A senior Iranian official on Friday welcomed the upgrading of the Palestinians' status at the United Nations as a "positive step."

The U.N. General Assembly vote to make Palestine a non-member observer state was "a positive and forward step and proves that the Zionist regime is illegitimate," Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said.

Israel revealed plans on Friday to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank in response to the Palestinians' historic success in being recognized as a non-member state at the United Nations.

During the landmark Thursday vote in New York, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution recognizing Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Germany next week for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel notably about the situation in the Middle East, Berlin said on Friday.

The visit to Berlin by Netanyahu on Wednesday and Thursday is part of a further round of German-Israeli government consultations, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

The U.S. and Israel on Thursday hailed the performance of the Iron Dome defense system during the recent Gaza conflict, with Washington stressing its continued "strong commitment" to the program.

The much vaunted Israeli anti-missile system played a prominent role in the eight-day confrontation between the Jewish state and Gaza-based militants that ended with a November 21 ceasefire deal.