A top Syrian military official who defected last week, General Manaf Tlass, has been in contact with the country's opposition, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday,

"I know that there is some closeness between the opposition and this general... contacts have been made," Fabius told journalists, without confirming that Tlass was in Paris as believed.

Khaled Meshaal, political chief of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, on Thursday called for turning the page on negotiations with Israel.

"We must build an Arab-Muslim strategy to liberate Palestine and turn the page on negotiations" with Israel, he said in a speech at the launch of a congress held by Tunisia's ruling Islamist party Ennahda in the Tunis suburb of Al Karm.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves for Russia next Wednesday to discuss the developments in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his office announced Thursday.

"Significant regional and international developments led by Syria are on the table to be discussed thoroughly," during Erdogan's visit, the written statement said.

Syrian regime forces on Thursday violently shelled the village of Treimsa in the central province of Hama, monitors and activists said, while eight people were killed across the strife-torn country.

"Regime forces pounded the village of Treimsa in Hama, using tanks and helicopters," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, noting that at least one person was killed there and several were injured, some critically.

Israeli aid groups are working with Western organizations to provide humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan, MP Ayoob Kara told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Syrian ambassador to Iraq Nawaf Fares, who announced his defection to the opposition, is now in Qatar, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday.

Israel poisoned the late Yasser Arafat with the lethal radioactive substance polonium, a nephew of the veteran Palestinian leader alleged on Thursday.

"We accuse Israel of killing Yasser Arafat by poisoning him with that lethal substance," Nasser al-Qidwa told Agence France Presse, referring to polonium, traces of which were recently found on clothing worn by the ailing leader.

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Iran has hanged four Iranian Arab activists from Khuzestan province on terrorism charges and sentenced to death five others who could soon face the same fate.

Human Right Watch on Thursday said Syrian regime forces appear to be using Soviet-made cluster bombs against rebel hideouts in a mountainous region of Hama province.

Two videos posted online on Tuesday appear to show unexploded sub-munitions and a bomb canister in Jabal Shahshabu, northwest of the city of Hama, said the New York-based group.

A Palestinian militant from the ruling Hamas movement was killed and two others wounded on Thursday in an Israeli air strike on eastern Gaza City, medics said.

The attack targeted a training ground used by Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in the southeastern Zeitoun neighborhood of the city, they said.