President Michel Suleiman urged on Thursday the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL leaderships to expand the investigation into the infiltration of an Israeli patrol into southern Lebanon.

Suleiman's request came in an attempt to study in detail the circumstances of the infiltration that took place early Wednesday to add the information to a complaint that Lebanese authorities plan to file with the U.N. Security Council.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour has warned that Lebanon would confront Israelis “bats” with landmines after four soldiers were injured following an incursion into Lebanese territories early Wednesday.

“They have their bats and we have landmines,” Mansour told As Safir newspaper published Thursday.

The top U.S. military officer is going to Israel and Jordan next week for a visit focused in part on Iran and the war in Syria, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet in Israel with his counterpart Benny Gantz to discuss advances in Iran's nuclear program, which Israel regards as an "existential threat."

An Israeli rabbi was on Wednesday found guilty of sexually abusing a minor, public radio said.

A Jerusalem court ruled that influential Zionist rabbi Mordechai Elon had "inappropriately" touched a young boy on two separate occasions in 2005, the radio quoted a lawyer as saying.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Iran had expanded its sensitive enrichment of uranium despite the election as president of moderate cleric Hasan Rowhani.

"Iran has not stopped its nuclear program, even after its presidential election" on June 14, Netanyahu said in comments broadcast by public radio.

Israel's Jewish population is overwhelmingly of the opinion that negotiations with the Palestinians will fail to achieve peace, according to a poll published Wednesday.

Some 80 percent of Israeli Jews said the chances of success of U.S.-brokered talks, which resumed on July 29 after a three-year hiatus, were "low," against only 18 percent who said they were "high".

Four Israeli soldiers were injured in a landmine blast along the northern border with Lebanon, media reports said on Wednesday.

A Lebanese army communique said that the “Israeli patrol violated Lebanon's sovereignty."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Tuesday for "increased pressure" on Iran, saying it was the "only thing" that would deter it from pursuing a nuclear weapons capability.

He was addressing a delegation of 36 visiting U.S. Congressmen after Iran's new President Hassan Rowhani called for "serious" talks without delay to allay concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

Israel has authorized the young winner of the Arab Idol talent competition to move from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank as a "humanitarian gesture," an official said Tuesday.

"General Eitan Dangot, coordinator of government activities in the (Palestinian) territories, accepted a West Bank residence request for Mohammed Assaf," the defense ministry official said.

The population in Israel's controversial West Bank settlements has grown twice as much as in Israel itself, military radio said on Tuesday, quoting official statistics.

The figures released by the interior ministry are likely to add to Palestinian misgivings about resuming peace talks in Washington last week with the Israelis. The talks broke down three years ago over the settlement issue.