Palestinian militants fired a rocket at southern Israel on Thursday morning, hours after Israeli warplanes attacked "terror sites" inside the Gaza Strip, the army said.

"A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in an open field in the Eshkol region," a military spokesman told Agence France Presse.

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday urged Syria to allow Arab monitors to observe as many anti-regime protests as possible and provide unfettered access to members of the opposition.

However, it said it was premature to comment on the first day of monitoring on Tuesday, unlike France which said the monitors were denied the chance to see the reality in the flashpoint city of Homs, where many civilians have been reported killed.

Jordan on Wednesday urged an end to "killing" in Syria, and called for reforms in its northern neighbor, where the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died in a crackdown on dissent.

"Killing in Syria must stop and the promised reforms must be implemented without delay," Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said in a lecture at the Royal Jordanian National Defense College.

The German foreign ministry said it was holding talks with Syria's ambassador to Berlin Wednesday regarding accusations that the regime's secret services had attacked an opposition member in Germany.

A ministry spokesman said its political director would discuss with Syria's envoy the beating of a local Green party politician of Syrian origin, Ferhard Ahma, at his home early Monday.

Arab League observers have not been allowed to determine the real situation in Syria's protest hub of Homs and should return for the full picture, the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"A few Arab League observers were able to be briefly present in Homs yesterday. Their presence did not prevent the continuing of the bloody crackdown in this city, where large demonstrations were violently repressed, leaving about 10 dead," ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Jerusalem municipality on Wednesday approved plans for another 130 housing units in Gilo, a settlement neighborhood in the annexed eastern sector of the Holy City, a city councilor told Agence France Presse.

Pepe Alalu of the left-wing Meretz party said the district planning committee had given the green light to a project to build 130 homes in three 12-storey tower blocks on the eastern outskirts of Gilo which lies just a few kilometers north of Bethlehem.

A Yemeni civilian was shot dead Wednesday in a shootout between the Republican Guard and gunmen loyal to dissident tribal chief Sadiq al-Ahmar, witnesses said.

The clash broke out when a military commission attempted to remove barriers near the interior ministry in Amran Street, Hasaba neighborhood, in an effort to return the capital to normalcy following unrest.

Syria on Wednesday released from jail 755 prisoners who had been involved in anti-regime unrest, state television said, as Arab observers deployed in flashpoint hubs to implement a peace deal.

"Seven hundred and fifty-five prisoners who had been involved in the recent incidents in Syria and who did not have Syrian blood on their hands have been released" from prison, the state broadcaster said in a news flash.

The murder trial of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak resumed Wednesday after a three-month hiatus that saw the ousted strongman's fate eclipsed by deadly clashes and an Islamist election victory.

Mubarak risks the death sentence if he is found to have been complicit in the killings of some 850 people who died during protests that overthrew him in February.

Russia urged its ally Syria on Wednesday to provide as much freedom as possible for observers from the Arab League that began their first inspections of flashpoint cities this week.

"We constantly work with the Syrian leadership calling on it to fully cooperate with observers from the Arab League and to create work conditions that are as comfortable and free as possible," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference with his Egyptian counterpart.