Binyamin Netanyahu flies to US for talks with Barack Obama as killings raise tension in West Bank

• Israeli PM defiant on East Jerusalem settler homes
• UN chief stresses suffering caused by Gaza boycott

Palestinians carry the bodies of Mohammad Qadus, 15, and Osaid Qadus, 17, during their funeral in the West Bank. Photograph: Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday with President Barack Obama as tension escalates in the Middle East after a weekend of violence and with little sign of an imminent return to direct peace talks with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu sounded a defiant tone today, refusing to back down on settlement construction in East Jerusalem, but he faced a new round of criticism after four Palestinian teenagers were shot dead on the occupied West Bank in the space of 24 hours, in what Palestinian officials condemned as an Israeli military escalation.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, travelled to Gaza, where he denounced the Israeli economic blockade and the “unacceptable suffering” it causes.

Netanyahu was to fly to Washington tonight to speak at the annual meeting of the powerful pro-Israel lobby Aipac before his meeting with the president. His trip comes at a time of rare crisis in relations between Israel and the US, triggered by Israeli approval earlier this month for the construction of hundreds of settler homes in Jerusalem.

The international community does not recognise Israel’s occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem, and settlements on occupied land are regarded as illegal under international law. The approval for the construction meant indirect talks with the Palestinians collapsed before they had even begun.

At first Washington was strongly critical of Israel, but the administration soon tempered its language and has instead reportedly pressed for concessions from the Israelis in private.

However, Netanyahu refuses to concede on the main issue: he told his cabinet today he would not give up building in East Jerusalem. “From our point of view, construction in Jerusalem is like construction in Tel Aviv,” he said. “These are the things which we have made very clear to the American administration.” He did concede that all key issues could be discussed in any indirect “proximity” talks involving Israel and the Palestinians, but there have been no talks between the two sides since Israel’s war in Gaza, more than a year ago.

George Mitchell, the US special envoy, was in Jerusalem again today hoping to start at least indirect talks. Speaking before meeting Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, Mitchell said US relations with Israel were “unshakeable”.

The diplomacy was overshadowed by growing concerns about violence on the ground. Two Palestinian teenagers, Muhammad and Salah Qawariq, were shot dead today by Israeli troops near Nablus. The military said the two had tried to stab a soldier; Palestinian officials said the pair had been farming and were detained by the troops for some minutes before they were shot.

The incident happened as Palestinians in another village near Nablus buried two boys, Mohammad Qadus, 15, and Osaid Qadus, 17, who were shot dead by Israeli troops on Saturday. It marked the most serious violence in the occupied West Bank for more than a year. A Thai worker was also killed in southern Israel last week by a rocket fired by Gazan militants.

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, said there had been a “military escalation” by Israeli which “has serious risks and puts in jeopardy the Palestinian authority’s achievements of security and stability”.

Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian politician, said the latest killings were a “provocation”, and that Palestinians should not return to negotiations without a halt to all settlement building. “Without a total and complete freeze of settlements immediately, both in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, any negotiations will be a cover for Israeli measures,” he said.

The UN secretary general, Ban, crossed into Gaza and again called for an end to the three-year economic blockade of the strip and its 1.5 million Palestinian residents. Israel has finally allowed in window frames and construction materials to allow the UN to complete 151 apartments, but there are still tens of thousands of homes awaiting repair after last year’s war. The supplies were “a drop in a bucket of water”, Ban said. The blockade “undercuts moderates and encourages extremists”, he said.