Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was hospitalized on Thursday for a heart test and later discharged, with the 81-year-old's health reported to be normal, officials said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will attend the funeral of Israeli ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, Palestinian officials told AFP on Thursday, in what will be a rare visit to Jerusalem.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for the creation of a "special regime" for the protection of his people, as a wave of deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence showed no sign of abating.

Abbas called on the United Nations, "more urgently than any time before, to set up a special regime for international protection for the Palestinian people, immediately and urgently."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday as part of an international diplomatic push to quell a wave of deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The talks came as a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli security guard in the West Bank and was killed, according to police, in the latest in a string of such attacks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads to the U.N. this week for a speech expected to be closely watched for clues of his intentions at a time of growing despair among Palestinians, moribund peace talks and volatility in Jerusalem. 

Abbas' actions in recent weeks have spurred speculation ranging from whether the 80-year-old's retirement is imminent to whether he intends to take the drastic step of dismantling the Palestinian Authority to reenergize the push for statehood.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday praised the countries which sided with "justice" by voting for the Palestinians to be allowed to raise their flag at United Nations headquarters.

The U.N. General Assembly, by a two-thirds vote, adopted a resolution on Thursday allowing the flags of Palestine and the Holy See -- both of which have non-member observer status -- to be hoisted alongside those of member states.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday he believes Middle East peace talks can be relaunched, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was ready to resume direct talks with the Palestinians.

"I believe there is a chance and I think it is imperative we have not lost sight of that issue," Kerry said in an interview with MSNBC.

Three people were killed in clashes overnight and into Tuesday morning between rival armed groups in Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern city of Sidon, medical sources told Agence France Presse

The fighting between the Jund al-Sham Islamist group and members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement prompted hundreds of residents to flee Ain el-Hilweh and shelter in nearby mosques.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas resigned Saturday as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's Executive Committee in a bid to force new elections for the top body, an official said.

Wassel Abu Yussef said that more than half of the 18-member committee had also stepped down.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare telephone call to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemning the murder Friday of a Palestinian toddler in an arson attack and pledging a thorough investigation.

Netanyahu told Abbas "everyone in Israel was shocked by the reprehensible terrorism against the Dawabsha family" that killed the 18-month-old boy, his office said.