RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian prisoner held by Israel has agreed to end an on-off hunger strike on Monday which lasted for more than eight months in exchange for an early release, Palestinian officials told Reuters. The fast by Samer al-Issawi, 32, from a suburb of Jerusalem, had stoked weeks of street protests and concerns by Israel that his death might lead to mass unrest.

Israeli and Turkish officials failed Monday to agree compensation over a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, but officials said they still hoped a crucial step would be taken towards restoring once-solid ties between the two countries. "This problem will be solved at a second meeting, and if not enough, at a third one," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, who leads the Turkish team, told reporters after meeting the Israeli officials in Ankara.

The Hamas rulers of Gaza on Sunday slammed US Secretary of State John Kerry for urging the Turkish prime minister to delay a visit to the Palestinian territory. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Kerry and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas -- who met in Istanbul earlier in the day -- of "collusion in a bid to maintain the (Israeli) blockade on Gaza." "Hamas denounces the US position calling for the cancellation of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Gaza. This proves US involvement in consecrating the Gaza blockade," Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Turkey's prime minister on Sunday to delay a visit to Gaza in talks aimed at putting Israeli-Turkish relations back on track as part of efforts to revive the Middle East peace process. "We have expressed to the prime minister (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) that it would be better to delay," Kerry told reporters in Istanbul, urging him to wait for the "right conditions". Erdogan announced last week that he was planning to visit the impoverished Palestinian territory at the end of next month after a key trip to Washington on May 16.