Iran's army "alone" is able to destroy Israel, army commander General Ataollah Salehi said on Thursday, responding to boasts by the Jewish state that its military that could attack its archfoe on its own.

"Our message to this illegitimate regime (Israel) is the same, we do not need to utilize all of Iran's military forces," Salehi said on the sidelines of the Islamic republic's annual Army Day. "The army ... alone is able to destroy Israel."

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has urged caution over international calls to arm Syrian rebels and reserved the right for the Jewish state to block the supply of weapons that could be turned against it.

Speaking to the BBC, the Israeli prime minister said if advanced arms fell into the hands of Islamist militants it could redefine regional security threats.

Some 3,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails on Wednesday refused breakfast as part of a one-day hunger strike to mark Prisoners' Day, an Israeli prison official said.

Palestinians across the territories are attending marches and rallies as a show of solidarity with prisoners from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza held in Israeli facilities, whose numbers according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem reach 4,713.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has warned Lebanon that it would “pay the price” of any attack carried out by Hizbullah on the Jewish state.

Hizbullah and Hamas are armed with tens of thousands of rockets of different types and on the day they receive the order, “they’ll fire them at our cities and civilians,” Ya'alon said during an Independence Day speech he delivered in Herzliya on Tuesday.

At least two Grad rockets fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula exploded in the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat on Wednesday, causing no casualties, in an attack claimed by a Salafi jihadist group.

It was the first rocket attack on the southern resort city in eight months, with the Israeli army saying they were fired from the Egyptian Sinai, although there was no immediate confirmation from Cairo where a senior military official said troops were "investigating" the incident.

The Pentagon has requested $220.3 million in 2014 to bolster Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system despite broader cuts to U.S. military spending, according to budget documents.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency also is asking for an additional $175.9 million in fiscal year 2015 for Israel's homegrown missile defense network, according to the agency's budget proposal posted online.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is due in Israel for an official visit on April 21 on his first trip to the region since taking over as Pentagon chief, an Israeli official confirmed to Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

According to the official, Hagel will be arriving "on Sunday" for "a short working visit."

Israeli army chief Benny Gantz said Tuesday that Israel's military capabilities were deterring Hizbullah from carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.

“Hizbullah knows very well what would happen to it if war breaks out. Lebanon knows what will happen if war breaks out. Therefore, I believe they are deterred,” Gantz said in an interview with Israel Radio.

The Military Court on Monday sentenced Shiite cleric Sheikh Hasan Msheimesh to five years hard labor on charges of collaboration with Israel, state-run National News Agency reported.

The Lebanese judiciary had indicted Msheimesh with spying for Israel on October 19, 2011.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would not give in to "subhuman terrorists," as the Jewish state honored its slain soldiers and civilians killed in militant attacks.

Netanyahu, at a ceremony at the Mount Herzl national cemetery, pointed to the case of Israeli toddler Adele Biton, still in critical condition after being hurt in a stone-throwing attack on her mother's car in the West Bank a month ago.