An Israeli bulldozer fortified on Monday an Israeli surveillance position adjacent to the southern town of Maroun al-Ras where a monument for Palestinians killed on May 15 was erected, reported the National News Agency.

The Israeli activity was accompanied by overflights by its fighter jets over the regions of Marjeyoun and Nabatieh.

A unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood in September could lead to fresh conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and destabilize the whole region, a senior Israeli politician has warned.

In an interview with Agence France Presse, Shaul Mofaz, who heads the powerful parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said he would urge French leaders not to support the bid during a visit to Paris on Monday.

Israel's security cabinet was to convene on Monday for a second day of discussions on how to stave off an international flotilla intending to breach the naval blockade of Gaza, local media said.

On Sunday, ministers in the forum were told of the military's preparations for the 10-ship convoy which is expected to set sail from Greece later this week.

Israel threatened on Sunday to launch a large-scale military operation on southern Lebanon if the security situation continues to deteriorate in the region.

“Hizbullah has turned most of the villages in southern Lebanon into explosive spots,” security sources told the Israeli radio.

Lebanon First MP Oqab Saqr stated that Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s admission that the party had been infiltrated by Israeli spies is a sign that there is no such thing as a “suitable atmosphere” for harboring such individuals.

He told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published on Sunday: “However, we can say that the Free Patriotic Movement does provide such conditions because it is going out of its way in defending an individual who has been proven to be a collaborator with Israel.”

Egypt remanded an Israeli spy suspect in custody for 15 days on Saturday despite Israel's insistence he was innocent of espionage, judicial sources said.

Ilan Grapel, a U.S.-Israeli joint citizen who was arrested in a Cairo hotel on June 12, is to remain in detention for the "needs of the investigation," the two sources said.

Hundreds of Israelis gathered near the Gaza border on Saturday at the site where Palestinian militants seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a deadly raid five years ago.

The protest was being held to mark five years that Shalit has been in captivity and comes amid mounting international calls for the Islamist Hamas movement to release him or at least provide proof of life.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's charges that the Central Intelligence Agency had infiltrated his group in Lebanon were "empty accusations," a U.S. embassy spokesperson said Friday.

"These are the same kinds of empty accusations that we have repeatedly heard from Hizbullah," the spokesperson told Agence France Presse shortly after Nasrallah made the allegations in a televised speech.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tasked Vice Premier and Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon to reconcile with Turkey, Israeli media revealed on Friday.

Yaalon held talks with two high-ranking officials in the Turkish foreign ministry, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Channel 2 television network unveiled.

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. has dubbed Lebanon as a country that has opened its borders for smuggled weapons, warning that the Jewish state would not withdraw from the border village of Ghajar as long as Hizbullah continues to arm itself.

Ambassador Ron Prosor said following a Security Council session on the situation in the Middle East on Thursday that “Lebanon would be best defined as the open border for smuggled ammunition and arms.”