An Israeli air strike on the northern Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians and wounded two others on Monday, the emergency services in the Hamas-run enclave said.

Emergency services chief Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse that Musaad Alzaneen, a man in his early 20s, was killed in the raid on farmland near the town of Beit Hanoun.

Israel needs to make some tough decisions in order to find peace with the Palestinians, U.S. President Barack Obama warned Benjamin Netanyahu in talks at the White House on Monday.

But the Israeli prime minister insisted that the Jewish state had already done its part for peace, while the Palestinians had not.

President Barack Obama will Monday try to cajole Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a U.S. framework for final peace talks with the Palestinians, but the Israeli leader is vowing to resist all "pressures."

Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu will also discuss Iranian nuclear diplomacy, but likely struggle to reconcile differing views after Israel blasted an interim pact with Tehran reached last year as a bad deal.

Israel's prime minister pledged Sunday to resist "pressures" as he left for Washington on a visit expected to center on peace talks with the Palestinians and the Iranian nuclear dispute.

"I am now leaving on an important trip to the U.S. where I will meet with President Barack Obama," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying as he boarded his plane.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with his national security team Saturday to weigh policy options after Russia's parliament endorsed military action in Ukraine, a White House official said.

Senior members of the Washington national security establishment, including General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were earlier seen heading into the White House for the rare Saturday meeting.

President Barack Obama fired off a sarcastic, no holds barred attack on Republicans Friday that made clear his focus is now more on mid-term elections than deal-making with his foes in Congress.

Though it was the last day of February, Obama's speech to partisan Democrats was more in tune with the partisanship seen in the closing days of campaigns before November elections.

President Barack Obama is warning Russia "there will be costs" for any military maneuvers it launches in Ukraine, a move U.S. and Ukrainian officials say they believe is already underway.

Officials say Obama may retaliate by canceling a trip to Russia this year for an international summit and could cut off trade discussions with Moscow. But it's unclear whether those moves will have any impact on Russia's strategy on Ukraine, which is at the center of what many see as tensions between East and West.

President Barack Obama branded the plight of minority youths in America an "outrage" Thursday as he launched a program to improve the lives of boys in deprived and dangerous inner cities.

In a rare, explicit excursion into racial issues during his presidency, Obama warned that America had become "numb" to statistics showing African Americans were more likely to lack fathers, drop out of school and go to jail.

Almost six in 10 Americans express disappointment with Barack Obama's presidency, according to a new poll, which also shows Republicans with the edge heading into mid-term elections in November.

The survey, by CBS News and the New York Times, also found that 82 percent of Democratic voters want Hillary Clinton to make another White House run in 2016.

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.