The U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi was a sitting target with weak security as requests for extra staffing were denied despite a rising Al-Qaida threat, U.S. lawmakers were told Wednesday.

In a testy and heated hearing, Republican lawmakers grilled three top State Department officials and the former leader of a security team into what went wrong in a September 11 attack on the mission, in which four Americans died.

The Israeli Air Force early Thursday morning launched a strike against what a spokeswoman called "a terror activity site" in the northern Gaza strip, which she said was in response to earlier rocket attacks on Israel.

Palestinian officials in Gaza said the target was a training camp of Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades and said there were no casualties.

The U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has arrived in Saudi Arabia at the start of his second regional tour, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Brahimi had first gone to the Middle East in mid-September, visiting Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad -- but earned no promises of concessions from him.

A Syrian passenger plane was forced to land in Ankara on Wednesday evening on suspicions that it was carrying weapons, Anatolia news agency reported citing officials.

"We received information that the plane's cargo did not comply with rules of civil aviation," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the agency.

Forty-eight Iranians held hostage by rebels in Syria and threatened with execution were in "good health," Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday.

"Thanks to God, all of them are in good health," Salehi said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam without a doubt would get a death sentence if tried in Libya, his lawyer told International Criminal Court in the Hague on Wednesday.

"Although the Libyan government has danced around the issue, let's be very clear: if convicted (in Libya) Mr. Gadhafi will be hanged," Melinda Taylor, a court-appointed lawyer, told judges amid a dispute between the ICC and Tripoli on where Seif should face justice.

Damascus on Wednesday rejected a call by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for it to declare a unilateral ceasefire, insisting that rebels fighting the government must stop the violence first.

"We told Ban Ki-moon to send emissaries to the countries which have influence on the armed groups, so that they put an end to the violence," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday kicked off his re-election bid after calling snap polls that he is tipped to win, presenting himself as the only hope of facing Iran and the world economic crisis.

Following his announcement late on Tuesday that the election was to be brought forward, Netanyahu fired the unofficial starting gun to a campaign expected to see Israelis go to the polls in January or February.

A Syrian cameraman working for an official television channel was shot dead "by terrorists" on Wednesday in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, his broadcaster announced.

Cameraman Mohammed al-Ashram "was killed by terrorists" in Deir Ezzor, the largest city in eastern Syria, Al-Ikhbariya director Imad Sara told AFP, using the Syrian regime's blanket term for armed rebels.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Wednesday designated veteran politician Abdullah Nsur to form a new government after prime minister Fayez Tarawneh and his government resigned ahead of legislative polls.

"The king today accepted the resignation of Fayez Tarawneh's government and asked Nsur to form a new government," a senior palace official told AFP.