Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi on Thursday condemned a suspected Israeli air strike inside Syria a day earlier, saying in a statement that it violated the territory of a sovereign Arab state.

"This Israeli aggression... is a clear violation of the territory of an Arab state and of its sovereignty, going against the U.N. charter and the rules of international law," Arabi said.

Israel must immediately stop all settlement activity and start to withdraw its settlers from the Palestinian territories, a United Nations report said on Thursday, drawing anger from the Jewish state.

"Israel must ... cease all settlement activities without preconditions (and) must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers" from the occupied territories, a U.N. fact-finding mission concluded.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Thursday Talal Khalil with collaborating with Israel and revealing information on the residence of Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The state-run National News Agency said that Khalil disclosed to the Jewish State information on security bases belonging to the resistance and the residence of Nasrallah.

Israel was on Thursday tightlipped over Syrian claims it had bombed a military site near Damascus, while stressing that any transfer of advanced weaponry to Hizbullah would cross a red line.

Israeli officials and the military refused to confirm or deny any involvement in the alleged attack and had no comment on separate reports from security sources that its warplanes had struck a weapons convoy along the Syria-Lebanon border.

Several Lebanese officials condemned on Thursday an Israeli air strike against a Syrian military research center, accusing the Jewish state of exploiting the current situation in the neighboring country to carry out its “flagrant aggression.”

“Israel is exploiting the developments in Syria to carry out its aggressive policies, indifferent to all the humanitarian and international treaties,” President Michel Suleiman said in a statement issued by his press office.

Russia said Thursday it was checking reports of an Israeli air strike against Syria but would condemn the "unprovoked" attack if the information proved true.

The foreign ministry said it was "deeply concerned" by Syrian claims its military research center had come under Israeli fighter jet attack and other reports of bombs being dropped on a convoy near the Lebanese border.

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday formally began a period of consultation with the parliamentary factions to select the MP most able to put together the country's next ruling coalition.

Pundits are unanimous that most of the parties will recommend that Peres task Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the next coalition government in a decision likely to be announced within the next 48 hours.

The Syrian army said that an Israeli air strike at dawn on Wednesday targeted a military research center in Jamraya, near Damascus, after several media reports said Israeli warplanes bombed a weapons convoy near the border with Lebanon.

Residents who spoke to Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity, however, said the strike targeted a non-conventional weapons research center some 15 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of the Syrian capital.

Israel's premier Benjamin Netanyahu believes an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities could cause "significant damage" but only a U.S. attack could halt their operations, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

According to the Maariv daily, Netanyahu told a visiting delegation from the American Jewish Committee that only U.S. military action could completely halt Iran's nuclear program, which Israel and much of the world believes is a guise for building a weapons capability.

Officials from the United Nations and European Union on Wednesday expressed concern over a spate of incidents in which Palestinian civilians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire.

In separate statements, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator James Rawley and the local EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah said security forces should largely refrain from using live fire.