Israel's new ambassador to Egypt, Yaakov Amitai, is to take up his post in Cairo on Monday, three months after an attack on the mission, a foreign ministry source said.

The source, declining to be named, said Amitai, replacing Yitzhak Levanon who has completed his term as ambassador to Egypt, would present his credentials at a later date.

The Palestinian premier on Saturday slammed U.S. presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich for belittling the Palestinians as an "invented" people and demanded an apology.

Gingrich, leading in some national polls for the Republican Party nomination, made the comments in a Friday interview to be aired with the Jewish Channel satellite television.

Gaza militants fired four rockets at southern Israel early Saturday after Israeli warplanes attacked Gaza, in the latest tit-for-tat attack between the two sides.

A police spokeswoman told Agence France Presse that none of the rockets caused casualties or damage. The Gaza militant group Popular Resistance Committees took responsibility for the Saturday firings.

Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich said in an interview out Friday that the Palestinians are an "invented" people and mocked President Barack Obama's effort to be a fair broker of Middle East peace.

"If I'm even-handed between a civilian democracy that obeys the rule of law and a group of terrorists that are firing missiles every day, that's not even-handed, that's favoring the terrorists," said Gingrich.

Speaker Nabih Berri condemned on Friday the attack on UNIFIL and the national security, saying it aims at destabilizing the South.

“The terrorist attack that targeted the UNIFIL forces aims at destabilizing Lebanon and the South,” a statement issued by Berri’s office said.

Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, warned Israel on Friday against closing a wooden access ramp to the sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City.

"Jordan rejects any Israeli attempt to affect Jerusalem's holy sites, identity and heritage, including al-Moughrabi Gate" that leads to the compound's al-Buraq Wall, known to Jews as the Western Wall, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said.

An Israeli air strike killed a Gaza civilian and wounded 12 others, including seven children, when it hit a home next to a militant training ground, medics said on Friday.

The Israeli army expressed regret that civilians were hurt but blamed Gaza's Hamas rulers for operating within residential areas.

An Israeli air strike against a car in Gaza City on Thursday killed at least two Palestinians and wounded two others, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the reported strike, which Palestinian security sources said was carried out by an Israeli drone.

Jerusalem's city council has ordered the closure within a week of a wooden access ramp to the sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City, saying the structure was "a threat to public safety."

City engineer Shlomo Eshkol issued the order "to close the structure and not allow any use of it" in a letter sent to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation which is responsible for the upkeep of the structure, known as the Mughrabi Ramp.

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav entered a minimum security prison on Wednesday to start serving a seven-year sentence for rape, but not before defiantly accusing the state of Israel of "executing" an innocent man.

The day was a bittersweet one in Israeli history, at once shameful because the holder of such a lofty office was going behind bars for such a heinous crime, but at the same time a moment of honor because it proved that in Israel, even a president is equal before the law.