Israel said on Wednesday it had released $100 million of the tariffs and tax monies it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which were frozen last year as punishment for the U.N. bid.

But an Israeli official said it was a one-off measure to ease the financial crisis faced by the Palestinians and was not a sign that the transfers would be renewed.

Israel's foreign ministry on Tuesday protested to Argentina's ambassador over his country's agreement with Iran to create an independent commission to investigate the deadly 1994 attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, a spokesman said.

"The ambassador of Argentina in Israel was summoned today to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem for a clarification talk," ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in a statement.

Israel's parliamentary vote did not end hopes for peace with the Palestinians but instead has opened up a new chance for dialogue, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued Tuesday.

"I actually think this election opens doors, not nails them shut," she said, during a so-called "global townhall" meeting, in which she took questions from Internet-users and broadcasters around the world.

Israel on Tuesday boycotted a special U.N. Human Rights Council review of its rights situation, becoming the first country ever to snub such a session.

"I see that the delegation of Israel is not in the room," council president Remigiusz Henczel told the delegates at the United Nations in Geneva.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to congratulate him on his Likud Party's showing in last week's general election.

"President Obama spoke today by telephone with Prime Minister Netanyahu to congratulate him on his party's success in winning a plurality of Knesset seats in Israel's recent election," a White House statement said.

Nine people were injured and seven arrested in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Monday after clashes broke out as Israeli forces demolished several structures, local activists told AFP.

"Bulldozers demolished two structures and some parts of a house and they also uprooted trees," activist Fakri Abu Diab said.

Israel's health ministry has warned that immigrants must not be given contraceptives without their proper consent, after allegations that Ethiopian women were coerced into taking contraceptive jabs.

The allegations surfaced in December, when an investigative news program looking into the declining birth rate of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel uncovered claims that would-be migrants were told they would be refused entry to the Jewish state if they did not take Depo Provera contraceptive injections.

Israel is increasingly worried that Syrian chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Hizbullah or Islamist militants and is taking military and diplomatic steps to prevent it, local media and a security source said Monday.

The Maariv daily said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "urgently dispatched" his national security advisor to Moscow, where he will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Israel's foreign ministry said Monday it was "surprised" by Argentina's agreement with Iran to create an independent commission to investigate the 1994 attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish center.

"We were surprised by the news," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Agence France Presse. "We are waiting to receive full details from the Argentines on what is going on because this subject is obviously directly related to Israel."

Ten Palestinians have been killed and dozens severely injured over the past eight years when hit by "non-lethal" arms used by Israeli forces in the West Bank, an Israeli watchdog said on Monday.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem said these weapons were used by Israeli forces as crowd control munitions but they are still arms that have caused deaths.