Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized publicly on Monday for saying Arab Israelis were voting in "droves" in election day comments that drew condemnation, including from the United States.

"I know that my statements last week offended some Israeli citizens and members of the Arab Israeli community. That was never my intention. I apologize for that," he said during a meeting with Arab Israelis that was broadcast by television channels.

An Israeli court on Monday sentenced an Arab citizen to 11 months in prison for traveling to fight alongside Syrian rebels in Israel's war-torn neighbor.

Several Arab Israelis have been arrested after returning from Syria, where armed opposition to President Bashar Assad is now dominated by jihadists, including the Islamic State group.

Any nuclear accord must constrain Iran's nuclear infrastructure for "decades" before the U.S. Congress will lift sanctions, 80 percent of the House of Representatives told President Barack Obama on Monday.

The 367 representatives, Democrats and Republicans, highlighted "grave and urgent" issues in the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers.

Two dovish Israeli artists have been harassed by hooligans since last week's "stormy" election campaign, sparking official concern over post-poll polarization in Israeli society.

Singer and peace activist Noa says she was threatened and abused when she returned from a trip abroad last week, after the right triumphed in an election marred by personal attacks and racial slurs.

Dozens of Palestinians and foreign supporters protested in east Jerusalem's walled Old City on Sunday against the threatened eviction of a Palestinian family to make way for Jewish settlers.

"No to the eviction of the Sub Laban family," read banners carried by demonstrators, referring to the eight occupants of the house near the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound, a site holy to both Muslims and Jews.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz flew to France on Sunday to try to sway the next round of talks on a deal over Iran's nuclear program, his spokesman said.

Steinitz was "on a mission from Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) for a short visit to Europe in an attempt to influence the details of the emerging agreement on the Iran nuclear issue," a statement from Eyal Basson said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday began consultations with representatives of parties elected to parliament last week to hear who they would recommend as prime minister.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party scored an unexpected election victory on March 17, taking 30 of the parliament's 120 seats, compared with 24 for its closest challenger, the centre-left Zionist Union.

Israel's elections, which saw Benjamin Netanyahu clinch a third term, will not greatly affect Barack Obama's defense of any deal reached with Iran, the U.S. president said.

"I don't think it will have a significant impact," Obama told The Huffington Post in an interview Friday published in full on Saturday.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and urged him to renew Israel's commitment to a "two-state solution" to the Middle East conflict.

Netanyahu won re-election this week after a close-fought parliamentary campaign in which he toughened his stance, vowing he would thwart the creation of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli army has launched an investigation into the shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip while dismissing several other allegations of misconduct during a bloody war last July-August.

The Palestinians are threatening Israel with action at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes during the conflict, a move that could also open up the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which runs Gaza to investigation.