The Revolutionary Council of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Monday unanimously endorsed his rejection of demands to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, officials at the meeting told Agence France Presse.

"President Abbas has reaffirmed his refusal to recognize the Jewishness of the State of Israel and council members stood up to hail this decision," a senior Fatah official said from the meeting in Ramallah.

Hamas police in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip have rounded up dozens of members of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah movement, Fatah said on Saturday.

Spokesman Hassan Ahmad told Agence France Presse the arrests on Friday took place at a ceremony in Khan Yunis in the south of the coastal enclave.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman left Israel on Thursday for Rome to meet his U.S. and Russian counterparts amid deadlock in peace talks with the Palestinians.

"The minister will meet John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov," his spokesman said, as Israel and the Palestinians engage in a war of words on the stalled U.S.-brokered negotiations.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday directly urged Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and to "abandon the fantasy" of flooding Israel with refugees.

But his remarks sparked a furious reaction from the Palestinians who denounced his demand and said it had effectively put the final nail in the coffin of the U.S.-led peace talks.

President Barack Obama will meet Mahmoud Abbas on March 17, stepping up Washington's efforts to convince the Palestinian leader to embrace the U.S. vision of a peace deal with Israel.

The meeting will come two weeks after Obama's planned encounter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, which will also take place at the White House.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that U.S. attempts to forge an agreement on a framework for peace talks with Israel had so far failed but that the efforts are "extremely serious".

Speaking in Paris after talks this week with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Abbas told journalists: "So far the Americans have not been able to put these ideas into a framework, even if the efforts are extremely serious".

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday hailed remarks by Mahmoud Abbas on the Palestinian refugee issue, which he said showed the Palestinian president's "seriousness about reaching peace."

"I was happy to hear him," Peres' office quoted him as saying at the start of a meeting with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.

Israeli President Simon Peres on Monday hailed remarks by Mahmoud Abbas on the Palestinian refugee issue which he said showed the Palestinian president's "seriousness about reaching peace."

"I was happy to hear him," Peres's office quoted him as saying at the start of a meeting with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday he was not looking "to flood Israel" with returning Palestinian refugees, at a rare meeting with 250 Israeli students at his West Bank headquarters.

"Propaganda says Abu Mazen wants to flood Israel with five million refugees to destroy the state of Israel," he told the group at his Muqataa presidential compound in Ramallah, referring to himself by his nickname.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas would support a five-year Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank provided a NATO force is deployed to ensure security, the New York Times has reported.

Abbas, in an interview published by the paper on Sunday, shifted from his insistence on a three-year time frame for Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories under any future peace deal.