The Israeli army said Monday it has suspended an officer who hit a foreign activist in the face with his gun, in an attack that was condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisner has been suspended until the conclusion of the inquiry which has been opened," a military spokesman said.

More than 11,100 people have been killed in 13 months of unrest in Syria, including 55 since a U.N.-backed ceasefire took effect four days ago, a monitoring group said on Monday.

The death toll of 11,117 is 7,972 civilians and 3,145 military and gunmen, including fewer than 600 rebel fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon urged "maximum restraint" by the Syrian regime and cooperation from the opposition Monday as U.N. military observers began to monitor a fragile ceasefire.

"It is very important that the cessation of violence must continue," he said at a news conference in Brussels. "The Syrian authorities must exercise maximum restraint" and "the opposition forces should also fully cooperate."

A Syrian rights activist expressed alarm on Monday after 42 protesters among 500 people holding a candle-lit vigil last week outside parliament demanding an end to killings were arrested, some violently.

A group of youths carrying candles staged the sit-in on Thursday in front of the parliament building in Damascus, "demanding an end to the killings," said Anwar Bunni, who heads the Center for Legal Research and Studies.

Israel has barred nearly 80 foreigners from flying into the country on grounds they were linked to a pro-Palestinian campaign, police said on Monday, with 60 of them still awaiting deportation.

As of midnight, police at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv had detained 78 people, more than two-thirds of them French nationals, spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Syrian forces were locked in fierce gunfights Monday with rebels in one city and shelled another, as the U.N. chief urged "maximum restraint" after the arrival of observers to oversee a truce aimed at ending 13 months of bloodshed.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces killed at least 45 civilians and were fighting rebels at Idlib in the northwest, while also shelling the flashpoint central city of Homs, said the Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The United Arab Emirates has summoned Iran's ambassador to Abu Dhabi to denounce a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a disputed island in the Gulf, the official state news agency said on Monday.

The UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Qarqash, "summoned the Iranian ambassador... and handed him a letter of protest, denouncing" Ahmadinejad's visit on Wednesday to Abu Moussa, WAM reported.

The first international observers tasked with monitoring a shaky U.N.-backed ceasefire arrived Sunday in Syria, where regime forces pounded a rebel city.

"They've arrived and they will start work tomorrow morning," said Kieran Dwyer, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department announcing that six observers were now in Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will visit ally China at an unspecified date to discuss the mission of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan who designed the ongoing fragile ceasefire in the country, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported on Sunday.

SANA said Muallem would go to China on a two-day visit at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

Iran has bought itself extra time during a first round of key talks with world powers over its disputed nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

"My initial impression is that Iran has been given a 'freebie'," Netanyahu said during talks with visiting U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, the premier's office reported.