Israeli police on Wednesday confirmed they were investigating an apparent hate crime against an Arab woman in Jerusalem and said a policeman had been dismissed after praising the attack on Facebook.

The attack took place on Monday at one of the light rail stops in west Jerusalem, with an Israeli bystander capturing the event on camera then posting the account along with 14 photographs on her own Facebook page.

The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the firing of a rocket from Gaza into Israel which it said had broken the longest ceasefire between the two sides in recent years.

Gaza militants fired the rocket in what they said was a response to the death of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail at the weekend. There are mounting international fears that serious new unrest could erupt in the Palestinian territories.

The United Nations called Monday for an independent inquiry into the death of a Palestinian in Israeli custody, warning that mounting tensions risk an eruption of violence in the occupied territories.

U.N. Middle East peace envoy Robert Serry made the call in a statement after talks with Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on the death of Arafat Jaradat at the weekend.

Lebanese leftist militant Georges Abdallah, who has been jailed for nearly three decades in France, on Monday declared a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, the Lebanon-based, pan-Arab television al-Mayadeen reported on Monday.

More than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners staged a one-day hunger strike on Sunday to protest the death of Palestinian inmate Arafat Jaradat.

Israel on Monday demanded that the Palestinian Authority act "responsibly" and rein in unrest, as militants vowed revenge over the death of a Palestinian prisoner allegedly under Israeli torture.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued the appeal for calm, the second in as many days, as thousands of mourners attended a tense funeral in the West Bank for Arafat Jaradat who died Saturday in an Israeli jail.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that Israel was deliberately seeking to stoke unrest in the occupied West Bank but that Palestinians would not be provoked.

"The Israelis want chaos and we know it but we won't let them," Abbas said in comments at his West Bank headquarters, seemingly in response to an Israeli demand on Sunday that he calm a wave of protest in the territory.

A Palestinian prisoner who died in an Israeli jail was tortured to death, a Palestinian official charged on Sunday, dismissing Israeli accounts of an apparent heart attack.

Arafat Jaradat's autopsy showed torture resulting from fractures in his body and bruises in his face, while his heart was in good condition, said Issa Qaraqaa, the minister in charge of prisoner affairs, citing a Palestinian doctor who took part in the autopsy.

Nearly 100 Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces during demonstrations in the West Bank on Friday to demand the release of hunger-striking prisoners, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

An Israeli official said three hunger strikers -- Tareq Qaadan, Jafar Ezzedine and Ayman Sharawrna -- were admitted to hospitals for protective check-ups.

An Israeli court handed a Palestinian hunger striker eight months on Thursday for violating his parole, but though he has already served most of his sentence, his fate still lies with a military court.

At Jerusalem Magistrates Court, Samer Issawi, 33, was convicted of breaching the terms of his early release from jail in October 2011 by taking his car to be fixed at a garage in the West Bank, his lawyer Andre Rosenthal told Agence France Presse.

Hundreds of Palestinian protesters on Thursday confronted Israeli security forces in the West Bank at a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Some 2,000 people gathered at the Beitunia military checkpoint on Thursday, hoping to march to a nearby military prison. When the Israeli military prevented them from proceeding, protesters began throwing stones and burning tires, the Associated Press reported.