Israel launched air raids against Syrian army positions early Wednesday and issued a stark warning to Damascus just hours after a bomb on the occupied Golan Heights wounded four Israeli soldiers.

The Syrian army said one soldier had been killed and seven others wounded in strikes on its bases in the Quneitra region, which it denounced as "acts of aggression" that endangered regional stability.

Jordan's prime minister escaped a no-confidence vote by parliament Tuesday that was motivated by his government's allegedly weak response to the killing of a Jordanian judge by Israeli soldiers.

The 150-member lower house renewed its confidence in Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur by an 81-29 vote, with 20 abstentions and 20 MPs absent.

A bomb along the Syria-Israel frontier in the occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday wounded four Israeli soldiers, the Israeli army said, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would act "forcefully."

The army said in a statement that "an explosive device was detonated against IDF (Israeli military) soldiers patrolling the Israeli-Syrian border," adding that several soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Israel's pledge to free 26 Palestinians prisoners this month will definitely not include Arab Israelis and may not even take place at all, a minister said Tuesday.

Speaking to army radio, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, an outspoken hardliner who opposes a Palestinian state, said Israel's pledge to release them was unlikely to happen because there had been no move in the U.S.-led peace process.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has hardened his stance on Iran following developments in nuclear talks with the West and would now back a unilateral Israeli strike, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Yaalon also accused Washington of "demonstrating weakness" in the Ukraine crisis in comments published by Haaretz newspaper.

Explosions that were heard on Tuesday near the occupied Shebaa farms turned out to be caused by military drills carried out by the Israeli army , the state-run National News Agency reported.

According to NNA, the Israeli army launched more than 30 heavy artillery shells, specifically 120 and 155 millimeter caliber heavy artillery, during the military exercises.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that both he and Israeli leaders must make tough political decisions and take "risks" for peace.

Meeting Obama at the White House, Abbas said Israel's release of a fourth tranche of Palestinian prisoners by March 29 would show how serious Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was about extending peace talks.

Jordan said on Monday that Israeli President Shimon Peres had apologized to King Abdullah II for the killing of a Jordanian judge by Israeli troops last week.

Peres for his part issued a statement saying he had called Abdullah to express "deep regret" for the shooting of Palestinian Jordanian Raed Zeiter at a border crossing, but the statement stopped short of quoting a full apology.

Jordan Monday condemned what it called Israeli "escalation" in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, after a far-right Israeli minister visited the plaza, warning it could cause further violence at the site.

Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel, deputy leader of the hardline national religious Jewish Home party, briefly visited the plaza in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of West Bank cities Monday in support of President Mahmud Abbas's visit to Washington for talks with Barack Obama on the peace process with Israel.

Demonstrators waved the Palestinian national flag as well as that of Abbas's Fatah party, chanting "we are with you, president!" as Abbas was to weigh up an anticipated U.S. request to extend the faltering negotiations with Israel.