Israel's military will set up a special branch in its general staff dedicated to threats from Iran, it said Tuesday.

The military said it will appoint a major general to head the command, which is part of a broader restructuring in the general staff.

A statement by the military offered few details about the new command, saying the nature of the new branch's work was "yet to be determined." But the move highlights the importance Israel places on the threats it views coming from Iran.

Iran has forces based in Syria, Israel's northern neighbor, and supports Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. In Gaza, it supplies Islamic Jihad with cash, weapons and training, and also supports Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules the coastal territory. Israel also accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons — a charge Iran denies.

Israel has repeatedly struck Iran-linked targets in Syria in recent years and has warned against any permanent Iranian presence on the frontier. But its battle against Iran has increasingly come out of the shadows, with Iranian and Israeli forces coming into direct confrontation.

In November, the Israeli military said fighter jets hit multiple targets belonging to Iran's elite Quds force, including surface-to-air missiles, weapons warehouses and military bases.

Israel has also struck a number of Iranian military targets in Syria, including munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp, in response to an Iranian missile attack a day earlier.

Knife-wielding Palestinian youth was arrested in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday after attempting to carry out a stabbing attack against a police officer, Israeli police said.

The incident took place at a checkpoint outside a flashpoint holy site known to Jews as the Cave of Patriarchs and to Muslims as Ibrahimi Mosque.

A 19-year-old man approached a Border Police officer on duty at a security checkpoint and tried to stab him, according to a statement issued by the Israeli police.

"Officers responded and the suspect was arrested at the scene," the police said, adding that the suspect was not shot.

No injuries were reported at the scene.

The police boosted its forces in the area following the incident.

The incident came amidst tensions in the region following the publication of U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan. The Palestinians and most of the Arab world have rejected the plan as biased and unfair.

Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled it ever since, despite international criticism.

Visiting Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday that his country is expecting major economic cooperation with Syria in the future.

Larijani made the remarks during a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Hammoudeh Sabbagh in the capital Damascus following their meeting in the Syrian Parliment.

"We underscore the importance of cooperation between the Syrian and Iranian businessmen and we see that these businessmen will definitely pave the way for a future busy with economic cooperation between the two countries," Larijani said.

Meanwhile, Sabbagh said he believes the future of the economic cooperation between the two countries will be "prosperous."

"As the brothers in Iran have had a role in supporting Syria in the unjust war against it, Iran will also have a role in the reconstruction process," he noted.

During the Syrian war, Iran has emerged as a key regional ally of the Syrian government which has repeatedly said friendly countries like Iran will have a role in the Syrian reconstruction.

Palestine said on Sunday that the Israeli plan to build a new electricity grid in the West Bank aims at "consolidation of illegal occupation."

"The plan will consolidate Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and support illegal settlements on our lands," said the Palestinian Energy Authority in a press statement.

"We will do everything possible to foil this plan and establish an independent electricity system for Palestinians," it added.

Israeli media reported that Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz had approved a plan to boost the electricity network in the occupied West Bank to reach settlements and Palestinian towns.

Palestinians pay about 72 million U.S. dollars monthly to the Israeli electricity company for approximately 1,100 megawatts of electricity provided for the West Bank and some 250 megawatts for the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military on Sunday said it has thwarted an attempt by the Hamas militant group to hack soldiers' phones by posing as young, attractive women on social media, striking up friendships and persuading them into downloading malware.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the phones of dozens of soldiers had been infected in recent months, although he said the army detected the scam early on and prevented any major secrets from reaching the Islamic militant group.

"We do not assess there is any significant breach of information," the military spokesman said.

Conricus said this was the third attempt by Hamas to target male soldiers through fake social media accounts, most recently in July 2018. But he said this latest attempt was by far the most sophisticated.

He said Hamas used a number of social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, to make contact with unsuspecting soldiers. Posing as young women on social media, the group struck up friendships with the soldiers, sending photos, texts and voice messages to them.

The "women" claimed to be new immigrants to explain their poor Hebrew, and even claimed to be deaf or hard of hearing as an excuse for texting, instead of speaking directly on the phone, Conricus said. The profiles appeared on multiple platforms, and he said the photos were disguised to make it difficult to "reverse track" them, giving the accounts additional authenticity.

"We see that the level of social engineering is much higher and much more advanced and sophisticated when compared to previous attempts done by Hamas," he said. "We see that they're of course learning and upping their game."

Eventually, they sent the soldiers links to "seduce" them into downloading what they said was a Snapchat-like app to exchange photos that could quickly disappear, Conricus said. In reality, the links were to three malware programs — Catch&See, ZatuApp and GrixyApp — that allowed Hamas to gain access to the soldiers' phones.

He said it was "very clear" that Hamas was behind the effort. He said the malware linked to known Hamas servers and at least one of the profiles had been used in a previous Hamas scam. There was no immediate comment from Hamas

Conricus declined to say how many soldiers had been targeted. But he said that dozens had downloaded the malware. He said soldiers had reported the suspicious activity relatively early on, allowing the army and the Shin Bet internal security service to monitor their phones. It is now in the process of removing the malware, he said.

Israel and Hamas, an Islamic movement that seeks Israel's destruction, are bitter enemies that have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the group seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

The enemy sides have been holding indirect talks through Arab and U.N. mediators aimed at reaching a long-term truce under which Israel would ease a blockade on the Gaza Strip in exchange for Hamas assurances to maintain quiet.

But low-level fighting has persisted. Early Sunday, Israel carried out a number of airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza in response to the firing of two projectiles from Gaza into southern Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.