Rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime have seized a 25-kilometer (15 miles) strip of land stretching from the Jordan border to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a watchdog said on Sunday.

"Fighters loyal to Al-Nusra Front, Al-Yarmuk Brigade, Al-Mutaz Billah Brigade and others took control of Al-Rai military checkpoint," east of Sahem al-Golan town in the southern province of Daraa, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel's new Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Sunday vowed an "immediate" answer to all Syrian gunfire onto the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, saying the Damascus regime was responsible.

"Every violation of Israeli sovereignty and shooting from the Syrian side will immediately be answered by silencing the source of fire," he said in a statement.

Hundreds of Israeli police dismantled a Palestinian protest camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem overnight, activists and police said on Sunday.

Activists set up the camp, which they dubbed Bab al-Shams or "Gate of the Sun" in Arabic, near the West Bank Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in a bid to draw attention to Israeli plans to boost building in the area known as E1.

Israel and Turkey's recent rapprochement is a vital factor in developing peace and stability in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.

U.S. President Barack Obama brokered the tentative reconciliation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday during his visit to Israel.

President Barack Obama returned home to Washington late Saturday after a four-day tour seeking to rekindle his engagement on Middle East peace and dominated by his embrace of Israel.

Air Force One landed at Andrews Air Force Base just outside the U.S. capital at 8:08 pm (00:08 GMT), hours ahead of schedule.

Gunfire from Syria hit Israeli army vehicles traveling in the southern Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, causing some damage but no casualties, the Israeli army said.

"A short while ago, military vehicles traveling in the Golan Heights were lightly damaged by bullets fired from Syria," an Israeli spokeswoman told Agence France Presse. "No one was injured, and the incident is currently being reviewed."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Israeli settlements "endanger" peace efforts, at a meeting in the Jordanian capital to discuss a "new" peace push, the Palestinian ambassador said.

"Kerry and Abbas discussed possible steps to revive a new political process for peace," Palestinian ambassador in Amman Attallah Kheiry told Agence France Presse.

U.S. President Barack Obama strolled among the ancient Jordanian ruins at Petra on Saturday, on the final leg of a four-day Middle East tour dominated by his embrace of Israel.

Obama flew by helicopter to view the rose-colored stone ruins of the ancient Nabataean city, after winds from a sandstorm abated and allowed him to make the 55-minute trip across the plains and mountains of Jordan.

The United States has quietly unblocked almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority which had been frozen by Congress for months, a top U.S. official said Friday.

The news that the funds had finally been freed up came after U.S. President Barack Obama met top Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a landmark visit to Israel and the West Bank earlier this week.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that Iran's leader should spend more time working to improve the lot of his people than firing off warnings that he will annihilate Israeli cities.

Obama, in Jordan on the latest stop of a Middle East tour, sought to avoid getting into a war of words with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but said Iran could transform its future if it stood down its nuclear program.