A mortar shell fired from Syria exploded in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday, hitting an open field without causing any casualties or damage, an army spokeswoman said.

It was the third incident of fire from the civil war in neighboring Syria straying across the ceasefire line in 24 hours and came as tensions soared after Israel carried out weekend air strikes near Damascus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a freeze on publishing tenders for new West Bank settler homes to avoid hampering U.S. efforts to renew peace talks, army radio reported on Tuesday.

He informed Housing Minister Uri Ariel about the decision several days ago, before his departure for China, the radio said.

Turkish and Israeli officials have come "close" to a deal on compensation for the Jewish state's deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla after talks in Jerusalem on Monday, the Israeli premier's office said.

"The meeting was positive," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement

Israel's weekend strikes on Syria may have sent regional tensions soaring, but life in Haifa was carrying on as normal on Monday, with locals adamant they are ready for any counterattack from Lebanon.

On the streets of this northern port city, where Israel on Sunday deployed a battery of its vaunted Iron Dome anti-missile system, the effect of the bombings was far from palpable, with people sipping cool drinks in outdoor cafes.

Two rockets fired from Syrian territory exploded inside the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Monday, without causing casualties or damage, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

The rockets exploded in a field near the ceasefire line in the southern Golan, she added.

Saudi Arabia on Monday called for U.N. action to end Israeli strikes on Syria, describing the raids as a "dangerous violation" of the sovereignty of an Arab state, the official SPA news agency reported.

Israeli raids on Syrian targets near Damascus at the weekend killed at least 42 soldiers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held telephone talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Syrian conflict, the Kremlin said Monday, after Israel launched air strikes inside Syria.

Putin and Netanyahu discussed the "situation in the region and the situation around Syria," the president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement to Russian news agencies, without giving further details. The Russian foreign ministry had earlier expressed concern over the air strikes.

Turkish and Israeli officials were meeting in Jerusalem on Monday for another round of talks over compensation for the Jewish state's deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, an Israeli official told AFP.

Foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the negotiations started at midday (0900 GMT) at the ministry's Jerusalem headquarters, although they were being run by officials from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau.

Damascus will respond to Israeli attacks against targets on its territory, but will "choose the moment" and may not do so immediately, a Syrian political official said on Monday.

"Syria will respond to the Israeli aggression and will choose the moment to do so," the official close to the regime, who was speaking from Damascus, told AFP in Beirut.

Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Monday the Israeli attack against Syria, saying it further complicates the conflict in the neighboring country.

“The attack offers the Syrian regime an excuse to accuse the opposition of collaborating with Israeli,” Jumblat told al-Anbaa.