Violence in Syria killed at least 12 people on Sunday bringing the death toll since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime to more than 14,100, a monitoring group said.

Those killed since March last year comprised 9,862 civilians, 3,470 soldiers and 783 army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Free Syrian Army on Sunday called on Syrians to begin a campaign of mass "civil disobedience" and also urged the strife-torn regime's military officers and troops to jump ship and join the rebel ranks.

"We call on Syrians to launch a general strike leading to mass civil disobedience," FSA spokesman in Syria Colonel Kassem Saadeddine said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked on Sunday the massacres in Syria to Iran and Hizbullah, accusing them of providing Syrian President Bashar Assad with assistance.

"It's not just the Syrian government. It is being aided by Iran and Hizbullah," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet session about the massacre of hundreds of civilians in several towns in Syria.

Dozens of Kuwaitis are fighting with the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) after crossing from Turkey, the Gulf emirate's al-Qabas newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the fighters' relatives.

The daily said that "dozens of Kuwaitis have crossed the Turkish-Syrian border with the aim of fighting alongside the FSA against Syrian regime forces."

Israeli President Shimon Peres urged the international community on Sunday to bolster efforts to stop the bloodshed in Syria, and said he hoped the rebels "will win" their struggle.

In an interview with Israeli public radio, Peres said the "efforts of the international community are insufficient."

The government of President Bashar Assad is on its "last legs" and has lost control of several cities, the new opposition Syrian National Council leader, Abdel Basset Sayda, told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

"We are entering a sensitive phase. The regime is on its last legs," Sayda said a few hours after he was named as the new SNC president.

Speaker Nabih Berri said Sunday that hadn’t there been fears of sectarian strife in Lebanon, the parliament would have resorted to a vote of confidence against Premier Najib Miqati’s government.

In an interview with the Saudi Okaz newspaper, Berri said: “We will continue through the parliament to pressure the government to force it into speeding up” the procedures that would lead to oil exploration in Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

The northern city of Tripoli witnessed security violations on Saturday as mild sniper activity renewed in breach of the ceasefire while the army remained deployed in the city.

The National News Agency reported that a child was slightly wounded in sniper gunshots in Bab al-Tabbaneh.

About 2,000 Israeli Arabs protested on Saturday to demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad step down and to show solidarity with Syrian civilians killed by regime forces, an Agence France Presse journalist said.

Marchers in the protest, organized by the Islamic Movement, carried pictures of children killed in the violence in Syria, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that than 13,500 people have died since the uprising broke out almost 16 months ago.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour expressed optimism on Saturday that the upcoming days would hold positive news concerning the 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted last month in Syria.

“The video aired by al-Jazeera television relieved us,” Mansour told Voice of Lebanon Radio (93.3).