Brazil has sternly criticized Israel's approval for renewed large-scale settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday backed pardoning a soldier sentenced to 18 months in prison for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian assailant, media reported. 

"I am still in favour of pardoning Private Azaria," Netanyahu told reporters accompanying him on an official visit to Australia, Israel's Channel 10 said. 

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan agreed Tuesday there could be no concessions on establishing a Palestinian state, the presidency said after talks in Cairo.

U.S. President Donald Trump's break with decades of support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is irresponsible and does not advance peace, a senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday.

A Palestinian was shot dead Sunday and five others were wounded by Israeli soldiers at the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medical sources said.

Israeli authorities on Sunday approved building permits for 566 settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, plans that had been postponed until U.S. President Donald Trump took office, the city's deputy mayor said.

Israel and the Palestinians remain as far apart as ever after a Paris conference, with attention now turning to whether U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will shake up the long-stagnant Middle East peace process.

France warned Sunday of "serious consequences" if Donald Trump moves to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital as representatives from 70 countries met in Paris to try to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Representatives from around 70 nations are to meet in Paris on Sunday to try to chart a course toward restarting moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict has returned to the spotlight after a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements and a major speech by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.