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A flurry of Middle East diplomacy was marred on Thursday as a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip killed a civilian in Israel as the EU foreign policy chief was visiting the Palestinian enclave.

A Thai agricultural worker was killed when the rocket slammed into a kibbutz just a few kilometres (couple of miles) from the Gaza border.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack. "All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law," his office said.

The attack, claimed by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar al-Sunna Brigade, came just as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was visiting the impoverished coastal strip which is still struggling with the aftermath of the 22-day offensive Israel launched in December 2008 in a bid to halt rocket fire.

"I'm extremely shocked by the rocket attack ... and the tragic loss of life," Ashton told journalists. "We need to move forward to get the peace process to move toward a successful resolution."

Ashton was to fly later on Thursday to Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet also attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the UN chief.

Ban himself also plans to visit the Middle East, including Gaza, over the weekend amid mounting tension in the region as well as between Israel and the United States.

US-Israel ties 'unassailably solid': ambassador

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who brokered a now troubled deal for indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a previous visit, is due back in the region on Sunday, a senior Palestinian official said.

The trip, initially scheduled for last Tuesday, was postponed amid a major row between Washington and the Jewish state over Israel's announcement of 1,600 new homes for settlers in annexed mainly Arab east Jerusalem.

Washington was all the more angered as the announcement was made while Vice President Joe Biden was in Jerusalem promoting the talks, but President Barack Obama has insisted there is no crisis.

"We and the Israeli people have a special bond that's not going to go away," he said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night.

He called on both Israelis and Palestinians to "take steps to make sure that we can rebuild trust." Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet held a late night session on Wednesday to discuss its answer to the US administration's criticism amid concern that delaying the keenly awaited response would further exacerbate the rift between the two allies.

But the prospects for a swift resumption of peace negotiations, halted when Israel launched its devastating Gaza offensive in December 2008, appeared dim.

Peace with Israeli government 'impossible': Assad

The thorny issue of settlement construction, which has long been a major hurdle in peace efforts, was certain to come up at the Quartet meeting on Friday.

The diplomatic activity comes at a time of heightened religious and political tension that saw several days of clashes between Palestinians and police in east Jerusalem.

An already charged atmosphere intensified over the opening this week of a rebuilt 17th century synagogue in the Jewish quarter of the Old City, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The Ansar al-Sunna Brigade said Thursday's rocket attack was "an answer to Zionist aggression against the Al-Aqsa mosque and holy sites and our people in Jerusalem."

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sharply criticised international demands for a freeze of Jewish settlement construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized and annexed in 1967 in a move never recognised by the international community.

But Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas insisted Israel must abide by its "obligations" and "freeze settlement activity in all Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem."

AFP