Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would not give in to "subhuman" terrorists, as the Jewish state honoured its slain soldiers and civilians killed in militant attacks. Netanyahu, at a ceremony at the Mount Herzl national cemetery, cited the case of Israeli toddler Adele Biton, still in critical condition after being hurt in a stone-throwing attack on her mother's car in the West Bank a month ago. "As if anyone needed it we got a reminder that a stone is a lethal weapon," he said.

Israel was marking Memorial Day from sunset on Sunday, remembering fallen troops and civilian deaths in terror attacks. Minute-long sirens sounded nationwide at 8.00 pm (1700 GMT), marking the beginning of the memorial day. According to numbers published by the Defence Ministry, since the year 1860 -- when the first Jewish neighbourhood in Jerusalem outside of the Old City was founded and Israel considers the beginning of the Israel-Arab conflict -- 23,085 soldiers and members of the security forces died in the line of duty, including 92 in the past year.

The United States hailed Salam Fayyad as a "strong partner" on Saturday after he resigned from his post as Palestinian prime minister over longstanding tensions with president Mahmud Abbas. The United States had pressed the US-educated economist widely respected in the West to stay on, with Secretary of State John Kerry telephoning Abbas on Friday to urge him to find common ground with his prime minister.

Israel has rejected appeals to release to the West Bank a Palestinian prisoner on a life-threatening long-term hunger strike, Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Qaraqea told AFP on Saturday. Qaraqea said Israeli officials told him on Saturday that Samer Issawi, who has intermittently refused food for more than eight months, "is in critical condition and might die at any moment." Issawi, 33, was first arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 26 years for militant activity in the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.