"Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel's government, said in a sermon late on Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' popular name.

"God should strike them and these Palestinians — evil haters of Israel — with a plague," the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments and said Israel wanted to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians that would ensure good neighborly relations.

"The comments do not reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's view or the position of the government of Israel," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Yosef's latest comments were tantamount to calling for "genocide against Palestinians". The rabbi's remarks, he said, were "an insult to all our efforts to advance the negotiations process."

Arriving at Netanyahu's office for a weekly Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters about Yosef's sermon.