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.

British Foreign Minister William Hague expressed concern over the situation in Lebanon after Prime Minister Najib Miqati's cabinet resigned, urging all parties to work for "a more consensual government" as the challenges from Syria grow.

"It is critical that all parties in Lebanon prioritize national interests and ... reach a broad consensus to enable parliamentary elections to take place within the legal and constitutional framework," Hague said in a statement issued late Saturday.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed on Sunday that the situation in the northern city of Tripoli improved, pointing out that the army is carrying out its task within the available capabilities.

“The army fortified its deployment in Tripoli and entered several neighborhoods clashing with gunmen,” Charbel told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

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."

Supporters of President Bashar Assad gathered in downtown Damascus amid tight security on Saturday for the funeral of one of Syria's best-known clerics who was assassinated in a brazen mosque bombing earlier this week.

Security forces sealed off all roads leading to the eighth century Omayyad Mosque where the funeral for Sheikh Mohammed Said Ramadan al-Bouti, an 84-year-old pro-government cleric, was held.

President Bashar Assad's regime Saturday said it "categorically" rejected a U.N. Human Rights Council decision to prolong an inquiry on strife-torn Syria, calling the group's work "biased and imbalanced."

"Syria categorically rejects this decision," said an unnamed official source cited by state news agency SANA a day after the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution prolonging the commission of inquiry’s work.

Rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad on Saturday seized a key air base in the southern Syrian province of Daraa after two weeks of fierce battles with loyalist troops, a watchdog said.

"Opposition fighters loyal to al-Nusra Front, al-Yarmouk Brigade and other rebel groups seized air defense Base 38 near the town of Saida, on the road linking Damascus to Amman, in the province of Daraa," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been feeding information to select rebel fighters in Syria to try to make them more effective against government troops, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials, the newspaper said the new CIA effort reflected a change in the administration's approach that aims to strengthen secular rebel fighters.