The head of Israel's armed forces has painted a grim picture of a future war in which the country could come under simultaneous attack in many ways, including from Hizbullah.

"The war could open with a surgical missile strike on the general staff building in the heart of the Kiriya (defense ministry complex) in Tel Aviv," Lieutenant General Benny Gantz told a conference in remarks broadcast by public radio on Wednesday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday promised Israel to be "clear-eyed" and committed to ensuring that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons as Washington pursues engagement.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, whose government has pressed for a hard line, visited Washington a week before Iran meets six nations to ease international concerns on its nuclear program that have triggered a U.S.-led campaign of sanctions.

Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian who was part of a group trying to cross a security fence from the West Bank into Israel on Tuesday, the army said.

"Several Palestinians attempted to infiltrate into Israel by crossing the security fence near Oranit checkpoint" in the northern West Bank, an army spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

More than 700,000 people took to the streets of Jerusalem on Monday night to mourn influential Sephardic Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, making it the biggest funeral in Israel's history, police said.

"We estimate there are more (than) 700,000 people taking part in the largest of funerals ever in Israel," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld wrote on his official Twitter account, referring to Yosef's funeral.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Monday condemned an attack on a nine-year-old Israeli girl the day before in the West Bank.

"We oppose on principle aggression against anyone, and the spilling of blood," he told a group of Israeli MPs visiting his headquarters in Ramallah.

Suspected Jewish extremists burned two cars belonging to Arabs in east Jerusalem on Monday and scrawled graffiti blaspheming the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, residents said.

The residents said cars in the neighborhood of Beit Aksa had been vandalized in the past, but it was the first time they had seen graffiti insulting the prophet there.

Iranians hit back at Benjamin Netanyahu's suggestion that they were banned from wearing jeans and listening to Western music, mocking the Israeli premier's comments on social websites Monday.

In an interview with BBC Persian television broadcast Saturday, Netanyahu had said "if Iranians were free, they would wear jeans and listen to Western music."

Iranians are accustomed to jabs from Israel's prime minister. But this one hit a nerve: Claiming clampdowns by Iran's rulers extended to blue jeans.

Social media sites were flooded Monday with Iranians posting photos including an Iranian closet piled high with denim and a young boy in jeans whispering into the ear of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Palestinians must "recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people" in order to achieve real peace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

"The Palestinians must abandon their refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people to their national state," he said in a speech at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

Israel's state attorney's office on Sunday charged alleged Iranian spy Ali Mansouri with aiding an enemy during wartime and with espionage.

Mansouri, 58, was arrested on September 11 carrying photographs of the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv.