Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked on Sunday the massacres in Syria to Iran and Hizbullah, accusing them of providing Syrian President Bashar Assad with assistance.

"It's not just the Syrian government. It is being aided by Iran and Hizbullah," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet session about the massacre of hundreds of civilians in several towns in Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday to expand the Beit El settlement by 300 homes after MPs voted down a bill to prevent the razing of buildings in one of its neighborhoods.

Netanyahu had opposed the bill, which would have circumvented a Supreme Court ruling ordering the dismantling of five buildings in the Ulpana neighborhood -- a settlement outpost built on private Palestinian land -- by legalizing outposts.

Israeli MPs on Wednesday voted down the preliminary reading of a draft bill that would have retroactively legalized settler homes built on private Palestinian land.

The 22-69 vote effectively thwarted an attempt to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling ordering the removal of five buildings from a settlement outpost known as the Ulpana neighborhood by July 1.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said international pressure on Iran aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions is "inadequate", in comments published in a German newspaper Wednesday.

Netanyahu told the Bild daily that although sanctions affected Iran and its economy, they did not halt its nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that German-supplied submarines were "very important" for his country's defense, after a media report that Israel was fitting the vessels with nuclear warheads.

"Germany has underlined its commitment to Israel's security in particular with the sale of another submarine," Netanyahu told the daily Bild. "It is a very important addition to our national security."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday voiced "revulsion" over the bloodshed in Syria, while accusing Iran and its ally Hizbullah of being accomplices.

He was "revolted was by the incessant massacres conducted by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces against ... civilians ... which continued over the weekend in the town of Houla," the premier's office said.

The head of the U.S. delegation to nuclear talks with Iran arrived in Israel on Friday to brief officials after a meeting in Baghdad that achieved little other than arranging more talks.

Wendy Sherman's visit is the latest in a series of meetings between U.S. and Israeli officials over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is peaceful but much of the international community suspects is a cover for attempts to obtain nuclear weapons.

A contingent of border guards has been sent in to help maintain law and order in Tel Aviv neighborhoods rocked by race riots, a police spokesman said on Friday.

"A unit of border guards comprising 60 men, including 40 police officers, has been deployed in south Tel Aviv to ensure order," Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

World powers and Iran hope to lay the groundwork for an end to the long-running crisis over Tehran's nuclear program in talks in Baghdad on Wednesday, but the challenges are immense.

The meeting with the P5+1 -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- comes at a time of unprecedented tensions more than three years since Barack Obama became U.S. president promising a new dawn in relations.

Israeli ministers were holding a special cabinet meeting at Ammunition Hill on Sunday to celebrate Jerusalem Day when the Jewish state captured the Arab eastern sector 45 years ago during the Six-Day War.

Celebrations were lined up throughout the day with formal ceremonies, parties and the annual flag march through east Jerusalem to mark the "reunification" of the city which took place after the 1967 Middle East war.