Kushner, Trump envoy visit Saudi Arabia's Cown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted US President Donald Trump's special envoy Jason Greenblatt and adviser Jared Kushner on Wednesday, to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

The meeting with Prince Mohammed came as Israeli warplanes pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip with an exchange of rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.

"Building on previous conversations, they discussed... the need to bring humanitarian relief to Gaza, and the Trump administration's efforts to bring peace between the Israelis and Palestinians," the White House said in a brief statement.

The visit came a day after Greenblatt and Kushner met with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman to discuss the peace process during a regional tour that will also take them to Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

The pair will not be meeting any Palestinian officials during their tour.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014.

Trump's controversial December decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which Kusher also pushed for, has made the resumption of peace efforts unlikely.

The move sparked anger across the Arab world and prompted Palestinians to freeze all contacts with US officials.

Read more: Palestinians aren't using human shields, Israel is

In May, Kushner attended and spoke at the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem, during which over 60 Palestinian protesters were shot dead during protests inside the Gaza Strip.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also been accused of a pro-Israel bias.

In remarks made earlier this year he effectively said that Palestinians should accept peace with Israel or "shut up".

"It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining," the de-facto Saudi leader told an audience of Jewish leaders in New York.

In April, King Salman scrambled to reject his son's declaration that Saudi Arabia recognises Israel's "right" to exist - a dramatic shift to the kingdom's official position.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, but Israel considers the entire city to be its "eternal and indivisible" capital.

Israel's latest strikes targeting Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, were more intense than in previous sorties.

Israeli warplanes initially targeted three Hamas military positions overnight in Gaza in response to kites and balloons carrying incendiary and explosive devices launched into Israel from the Palestinian territory, the Israeli army said.

The latest spike in tensions follows weeks of protests and along the Gaza-Israel border area, where Israeli forces shot and killed at 132 Palestinians and injured some 13,000, as well as the worst military escalation last month since a 2014 war.

Agencies contributed to this report.