The Israeli air force pounded targets in the northern Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, without causing casualties, following rocket fire on southern Israel, sources on both sides said.

Palestinian security sources confirmed the strike had hit a training camp in Beit Lahiya which was used by fighters from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement.

President Hugo Chavez vowed Tuesday to keep supporting Bashar Assad, calling him Syria's legitimate president and blaming the United States for the war that has raged on for nearly 19 months.

"How can I not support the government of Bashar Assad if it is the legitimate government of Syria?" asked Chavez, who was re-elected Sunday to a third term.

The first formal camp inside Syria for civilians driven from their homes by the nearly 19-month conflict began admitting displaced families on Tuesday, Agence France Presse reported.

The new camp, just a stone's throw from the Turkish border, opened its doors amid mounting pressure from Ankara for the international community to do more for the displaced inside Syria to stem any new exodus of refugees.

The trial of a Tunisian blogger who has voiced fears of creeping Islamization and is charged with drunkenness and indecency during Ramadan was adjourned on Tuesday, Agence France Presse reported.

At the hearing in Menzel Temime, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tunis, the prosecution announced that Sofiane Shurabi and his journalist friend Mehdi Jelassi would be tried for drunkenness and indecency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called an early general election, saying it should be held "as quickly as possible" in a bid to avoid damaging the Jewish state's flagging economy.

"My duty as prime minister is to put the national interest before everything, and so I've decided that for the good of Israel we must go to an election now as fast as possible," he told a press conference, broadcast live on Israel's main television and radio stations.

Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court on Tuesday postponed a decision on the fate of the Constituent Assembly that is tasked with drafting the country's new constitution.

A ruling had been widely expected on Tuesday but Judge Farid Nazih put off the hearing to October 16 to review more documents, judicial officials said.

President Bashar Assad on Tuesday appointed Sattam Jadan al-Dandah as Syria's new ambassador to Iraq, the official SANA news agency reported. He replaces Nawaf Fares who defected in July,

"President Assad issued a decree appointing Sattam Jadan al-Dandah as Syrian ambassador to Iraq. He was sworn in by Mr. Assad," the report said.

Turkey warned Syria again on Tuesday that it would not hesitate to retaliate for any strike on its soil as the country's top military commander visited troops stationed at the reinforced border.

"It has become inevitable for our armed forces to retaliate in kind... as the Syrian administration maintains its aggressive position," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's decision to pardon protesters detained over the 2011 revolution is a positive step but the vague wording could see some left behind bars, rights activists said on Tuesday.

"It's a very good decision but the distinction between a political detainee and a criminal one is fundamentally problematic," said Heba Morayef, a Cairo-based researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Al-Qaida in Yemen has beheaded three Yemenis in the country's eastern province of Marib, accusing them of "spying" for the government, the ministry of defense said on Tuesday.

The "bodies of two Yemeni nationals ... were found with their heads severed," the ministry, citing a local official, said in a statement posted on its website. It said that officials were looking for the third body.