Israel's military said Monday it is poised to lift a closure on the country's northern airspace imposed a day earlier as part of an alert that followed air strikes on Syria.

"Civilian aviation in northern Israel will resume regular operation following security assessments," a statement said.

China on Monday implicitly criticized Israel's air strikes in Syria as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Shanghai for a visit.

The raids on military sites outside Damascus a day earlier, believed to target weapons headed for Lebanon's Hizbullah, raised new fears of Syria's 26-month-long conflict spilling over into the wider region.

Israeli raids on Syrian targets at the weekend killed at least 42 soldiers, a watchdog said Monday, as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon led calls for restraint to prevent the war spilling over borders.

"At least 42 soldiers were killed in the strikes, and another 100 who would usually be at the targeted sites remain unaccounted for" after the Israeli strikes near Damascus, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani denounced on Monday the Israeli attack on Damascus, pointing out that the Lebanese should save their nation before it slips into a “sedition.”

“The Israeli attack on Damascus reveals the Zionist terrorism and the violations it commits against the sovereignty of countries,” Qabbani said.

A top Iranian general said any arms Israel targeted in Syria did not come from the Islamic republic, in remarks published on the Revolutionary Guards website on Monday.

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri "denied Western and Israeli media reports that an Iranian weapons depot has been targeted in Syria," the website reported.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called Monday for "a political solution" to the conflict in Syria, after its regime was suspected of using chemical weapons and after two Israeli raids on the country.

Israeli raids on Sunday hit three military sites outside Damascus, the second such reported attack in 48 hours, reportedly targeting weapons bound for Lebanon's Hizbullah which is an ally of President Bashar Assad's regime.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing on Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to follow him later this week.

Abbas's three-day trip -- the first by a Middle Eastern leader since Xi took office in March -- ends Tuesday, overlapping with a five-day visit to China by Netanyahu that begins in Shanghai on Monday and ends in the capital.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed Sunday for restraint to avoid an escalation in the Syrian conflict, expressing "grave concern" over Israeli air strikes.

"The secretary-general calls on all sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint, and to act with a sense of responsibility to prevent an escalation of what is already a devastating and highly dangerous conflict," his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The Syrian National Coalition opposition group on Sunday condemned Israeli strikes inside Syria, saying the Jewish state had "taken advantage" of the ongoing conflict.

"The Syrian Coalition condemns the Israeli attacks," it said in a statement.

President Michel Suleiman on Sunday strongly condemned “the criminal Israeli attacks on Syrian positions and the violation of Lebanese airspace to carry out these attacks that left a number of civilians dead.”

Suleiman said this behavior “is not alien to a common enemy whose policy is based on aggression,” noting that Israel “took advantage of the situations in Syria to carry out its attacks, exactly like it used to act in Lebanon during its plight (civil war).”