The legislation would mean that any handover of land would have to be approved by a majority of deputies in parliament and by the Israeli public in a referendum.

Deputies in the 120-member Knesset voted 55-35 with 18 abstentions to approve the bill. It has to go through two more readings before it becomes law.

Israel occupied both territories in the 1967 war and later annexed them.

Syria is demanding the return of the whole of the Golan in exchange for a peace treaty.

Israel's former Labour-led government agreed to the principle of exchanging Golan territory for peace, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has insisted all future talks be held without any preconditions.

The Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of an independent Palestinian state.

Under the Oslo peace accords, the future of the city is to be negotiated between the two sides, although all of Israel's main political parties oppose any loss of sovereignty over East Jerusalem.

Hebron security stepped up

The BBC's Maria Veronese reports on the Hebron shootings

In a separate development, the Israeli army has stepped up security in the divided city of Hebron, after two Israeli women were wounded in a shooting attack on a bus bringing workers into the city from a Jewish settlement, Kiryat Arba.

An Israeli security officer questions a Palestinian boy

Troops have been reinforced, a curfew imposed on Israeli-controlled areas, and entrances to the Palestinian areas sealed off by the army.

A statement by Mr Netanyahu's spokesman said the attack showed that the Palestinian authority was ignoring agreements it had signed on halting terrorism.

Israel has already frozen its implementation of the Wye River land-for-peace deal because it says the Palestinians are not meeting their security obligations.