Switzerland has decided to support a Palestinian bid for observer status at the United Nations when it is presented next week, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported Thursday.

Bern reached its decision after president Mahmoud Abbas' visit to Switzerland last week, RTS reported, quoting unnamed sources.

Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi emerged as a winner after brokering a Gaza truce hailed by world powers, but striking a balance between Israel and the Palestinians remains a tough task.

The United Nations and United States were among those that welcomed Wednesday's ceasefire that ended eight days of Israel-Hamas violence that killed nearly 170 people, amid hopes it will lead to a "sustainable" solution.

A Kuwaiti court on Thursday freed three Twitter users on bail after detaining them for nine days for allegedly insulting the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights activist said.

A fourth tweeter however remained in detention as his case will be heard by a court on Sunday, the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, said on his Twitter account.

The Hamas prime minister of the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, on Thursday called on all Palestinian factions to respect a truce deal reached with Israel a day earlier.

"I salute the resistance factions who have respected the agreement since it entered into force and I ask everyone to respect it and act accordingly," Haniya said in a Gaza City speech.

Hundreds of Kurdish militiamen clashed on Thursday with mainly jihadist rebels who had seized much of the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain from government forces, a watchdog said.

It was the latest in a string of drives for control of mainly Kurdish inhabited areas of the northeast and northwest that neighboring Turkey fears has given succor to the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) it has been fighting for nearly three decades.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas spoke by telephone on Thursday with Gaza's Hamas Premier Ismail Haniya and congratulated him on his "victory," a Hamas statement said.

"In a telephone conversation, president Abu Mazen (Abbas) congratulated Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas on his victory and offered condolences for the martyrs," a statement from the Gazan leader's office said.

A Kuwaiti court on Thursday freed three Twitter users on bail after detaining them for nine days for allegedly insulting the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights activist said.

A fourth tweeter however remained in detention as his case will be heard by a court on Sunday, the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, said on his Twitter account.

A Palestinian woman in her late 30s was arrested on Thursday after trying to stab an Israeli border guard at the entrance of an east Jerusalem police station, police said.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the woman to attack the border guard, who suffered only scratches, a statement said, indicating that an investigation was under way.

The Kuwaiti government on Thursday launched a media campaign to convince voters to cast their ballot in the December 1 poll in a bid to counter opposition calls for a boycott over a disputed law.

The campaign comes a day after Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah urged the public to be "positive" and cast their votes to elect the best candidates.

Russia on Thursday warned Turkey against deploying surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria, saying it should instead use its influence to help broker peace in the war-torn country.

"The militarization of the Syrian-Turkish border is of course a worrying sign," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a briefing.