Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he was willing to continue US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians, but not "at any price."

Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, Mr Netanyahu threatened that Israel would respond with steps of its own if the Palestinians continued to take unilateral actions toward statehood.

The Palestinians signed 15 international conventions last week, underlining their legitimate status as a UN-recognised state.

But Mr Netanyahu appeared to take exception to the Palestinians exercising their rights.

"By doing so, the Palestinians fundamentally violated the understandings that were reached through US intervention," claimed the Israeli prime minister, in his first public remarks since the crisis erupted.

"They will achieve a state only through direct negotiations and not through empty proclamations or unilateral moves, which will only push a peace accord farther away."

"Unilateral steps on their part will be answered with unilateral steps on our side.

“We are willing to continue negotiations, but we will not do so at any price."

President Mahmoud Abbas decided to sign the international conventions after Israel reneged on a pledge to free the last group of 104 Palestinian prisoners it agreed to release in the deal that led to the negotiations restarting nine months ago.

The talks have struggled since they began in July, stalling over Israel's demand that it be recognised as a Jewish state and over Israeli settlements, internationally deemed illegal, in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu's remarks came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepared to meet US envoy Martin Indyk in a last-ditch attempt to save teetering peace talks from collapse.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been seen as the driving force behind the peace push, had warned on Friday that there were "limits" to the time and energy Washington could devote to the talks process.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes attacked several sites in the Gaza Strip yesterday in retaliation for an alleged missile strike on Israel.

Five sites in northern and southern Gaza were hit, including training camps for the Islamic Jihad and Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.