Israeli forces overnight demolished the home of a Bedouin family near Jerusalem for the fifth time, along with four other structures in an unrecognized Bedouin village, an Israeli NGO said on Tuesday.

Israel's Civil Administration, the military body that oversees the West Bank, confirmed the demolitions.

Envelopes containing white powder initially feared to be anthrax arrived at six Israeli diplomatic missions in Europe and the U.S., Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

According to reports, embassies in The Hague, Brussels and London and consulates in New York, Houston and Boston on Monday received envelopes with the word "anthrax" on them, containing what turned out to be harmless white powder.

Opposition figure Georges Sabra has left Syria for France where he told the Liberation daily that "the Syrian people deserve to be protected by the U.N."

"My party sent me here to help the SNC (Syrian National Council, the country's largest opposition group), to work as a team," the head of the Democratic People's Party told Liberation's Tuesday edition

Gulf Arab states have decided to pull their observers sent to Syria as part of an Arab League mission out of the restive country, they announced in a joint official statement on Tuesday.

"Gulf Cooperation Council states have decided to follow Saudi Arabia's decision to pull out its observers from the Arab League mission in Syria," the GCC statement said.

Khaled Meshaal, political chief of the Hamas movement that rules Gaza, is due in Jordan on Sunday on his first official visit since he was expelled in 1999, the government spokesman said.

"Khaled Meshaal will visit Jordan on Sunday, along with the Crown Prince of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Tamim al-Thani," Rakan Majali, who is also information minister, told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

A member of Russia's Parliament, Mikhail Margelov, said Monday that Moscow ran out of methods to stop the international push for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

Russia's veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria "was the last instrument allowing Bashar Assad to maintain the status quo in the international arena,” Margelov was quoted as saying by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

A senior U.S. diplomat visiting Russia will press Moscow on a reported deal to sell Syria fighter jets, something Washington described as "quite concerning," the State Department said.

Jeffrey Feltman, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, was in Moscow on Monday and Syria was "issue number one on his agenda," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

Israel carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight Monday, sources from both sides said, in what Israel said was a response to recent rocket fire against the Jewish state.

Israeli planes targeted an arms factory in the center of the Palestinian territory as well as three tunnels used for smuggling contraband, two in the north and one in the south, the army said in a statement.

A series of car bombs exploded in Shiite areas of Baghdad Tuesday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 60, an interior ministry official said.

Two of the bombs exploded within half an hour of each other in the capital's Sadr City Shiite bastion, killing six people and wounding 32, the official said.

Germany on Monday led European demands for strong U.N. Security Council support for Arab League calls for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power.

Germany's U.N. ambassador Peter Wittig said the Arab League plan for Syria agreed at the weekend could be a "game changer" for the Security Council which has been deadlocked with Russia and China vetoing one resolution condemning the Syrian government's deadly crackdown.