The Palestinian unity government resigned on Wednesday in a deepening rift with Gaza as the blockaded territory's de facto rulers Hamas held separate, indirect talks with Israel.

An aide to President Mahmud Abbas said prime minister Rami Hamdallah "handed his resignation to Abbas", but confusion reigned over when the government was likely to dissolve.

Israel and Hamas have been holding indirect contacts about ideas for cementing a long-term truce in the Gaza Strip, sources in the Islamist movement said Tuesday. 

The contacts have gone through a number of Arab and European channels in a bid to firm up an informal ceasefire agreement that took hold last August, ending a 50-day war in Gaza. 

Israel announced on Tuesday it was relaxing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians to and from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A spokeswoman for COGAT, the defense ministry unit which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank, said that for the first time, Palestinians will be able to travel by bus directly from West Bank cities to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem.

Israel pledged Tuesday to protect any refugees who fled towards it after a rebel offensive in Syria and Islamist violence there raised fears about the Druze minority's safety.

A significant number of Druze live in Israel, and leading members of the community have called on the government to help their brethren in Syria following the recent violence.

Jordanian authorities have arrested an Islamist preacher for inciting hatred against the regime on Facebook, and ordered him held in preventive detention for 15 days, a court official said Tuesday.

Eyad Qunaibi was detained Monday night after posting a piece entitled "Jordan heading for the abyss", which criticized Amman's ties with neighboring Israel, as well as the westernization of Jordanian society.

Israel's foreign ministry has lashed out at foreign journalists' coverage of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, in a video that ridiculed their reporting, particularly during last year's bloody war.

The 49-second cartoon clip, entitled "Open your eyes about Gaza", was posted on YouTube on Sunday, and quickly drew condemnation from the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel.

Israel has approved the reopening of around 70 Palestinian shops which it closed 15 years ago in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, its mayor announced on Monday.

"The Israeli army's leadership allowed the reopening of stores on Sahla Street, which runs from the area near the Ibrahimi mosque" through Hebron's old town, Dawud al-Zaatari told journalists.

Israel has blocked a visit to the Palestinian territories by a U.N. rights envoy, an official said Monday, just ahead of the publication of a United Nations report on last year's Gaza war.

It was the second time Makarim Wibisono, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, had been barred entry.

Nuclear armed states continue to upgrade their stockpiles despite an international trend towards disarmament, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported Monday. 

Between 2010 and 2015 the number of warheads fell from 22,600 to 15,850 according to the institute's annual disarmament report which said the U.S. and Russia represented the bulk of the reduction.

Israeli ministers approved a bill Sunday that would allow prisoners on hunger strike to be force fed if their life is in danger, sparking criticism from health experts and rights groups.

The cabinet's endorsement of the controversial bill was led by Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who said that prisoners observing a hunger strike, namely Palestinians, pose a "threat" to Israel.