The Israeli army fired live rounds and tear gas at protesters near the border fence in the Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding two Palestinians, medics and an AFP correspondent said.

Troops fired at some 300 demonstrators who were protesting against Israel's destruction of farmland for its 300-meter (yard) buffer zone, the correspondent said.

Czech police said Thursday they had discovered an explosive device at the Palestinian embassy in Prague where a possibly booby-trapped safe killed the ambassador on New Year's Day.

Prague police spokesman Tomas Hulan told Agence France Presse the device was found during a sweep of the embassy and had been sent to a forensic lab for analysis.

Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip against training camps used by the armed wing of the territory's Hamas rulers left four children and a woman wounded overnight, Palestinian medical sources said Thursday.

The five Palestinian civilians were hit by shrapnel but their wounds are not life-threatening, the sources said.

Suspected Jewish extremists torched the entrance to a mosque in the West Bank early on Wednesday, in an apparent revenge attack for Palestinians beating and detaining Israeli settlers last week.

The attackers scrawled "Arabs out" and "Revenge for blood spilled in Qusra" in Hebrew on the walls of the mosque in Deir Istiya village, which lies next to the sprawling Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank, an AFP correspondent said.

A senior U.S. official on Tuesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly disavow a complaint by Israel's defense minister that John Kerry has a messianic "obsession" with Middle East peace.

The official made the highly unusual demand as fresh tension erupted between the governments of President Barack Obama and of Netanyahu after the minister, Moshe Yaalon, was quoted as branding the U.S. secretary of state, who has made 10 trips to Israel since March, a nuisance.

Israel on Monday launched two airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which left a Palestinian child wounded.

"Israeli warplanes targeted two terrorist sites in the center and south of the strip," an Israeli military statement said.

Gaza militants fired two projectiles which struck an area close to the ranch where former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was laid to rest on Monday, a military spokeswoman said.

"Two projectiles landed in an open area in the Shaar HaNegev region," the spokeswoman told Agence France Presse, referring to the area around the northern border with Gaza, without specifying exactly where they struck.

Palestinian police clashed Sunday with West Bank youths who were protesting against a U.N. strike that has paralyzed services in refugee camps leaving dozens wounded, sources said.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency employees have been on strike for more than a month, forcing cash-strapped UNRWA to shut schools and stop collecting garbage from West Bank refugee camps.

The European Union's foreign policy supremo said Saturday she was "deeply concerned" by what she said were "illegal" Israeli plans for more than 1,800 new settler homes.

"I was deeply concerned to hear the latest announcement by the Israeli authorities to advance settlement plans once more," Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

A senior Palestinian figure labelled Israeli former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who died on Saturday, as a criminal and expressed regret he was never taken before the International Criminal Court.

"Sharon was a criminal, responsible for the assassination of (Palestinian president Yasser) Arafat, and we would have hoped to see him appear before the International Criminal Court as a war criminal," said Jibril Rajub, a senior official of the Fatah party.