The Israeli airforce launched three raids on targets in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday as military top brass weighed a stronger response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory.

The air raids hit an uninhabited area to the west of Gaza City, without causing any casualties, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo on Monday that the Palestinian Authority will present its bid for non-state membership of the United Nations on November 29.

Following talks with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, "it has been agreed that the request will be presented on November 29," Abbas said, calling for support from Arab states.

The main Palestinian groups in Gaza, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said on Monday they were ready for a ceasefire if Israel "stops its aggression" against the territory.

"The Islamic and nationalist movement confirm that the response of the resistance depends on whether the Zionist aggression against our people is continued," they said in a statement released at a news conference in Gaza City.

Israel is preparing for a huge expansion of the Itamar settlement in the northern West Bank, the Peace Now settler watchdog said on Monday.

The plan, which has yet to be approved, would see Itamar expanding five-fold from 137 homes to 675.

Saudi King Abdullah and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas met on Monday, SPA state news agency said, as the Palestinian Authority intensified efforts to bid for non-state membership of the U.N.

The two leaders discussed "developments in the Palestinian issue, as well as the obstacles facing peace in the region and the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories," the agency in a brief report.

The parents of U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing in Syria for three months, said Monday they have not heard from him since he disappeared as they appealed for his release.

Speaking to the media in Beirut, Mark and Debra Tice said they had not been contacted by any party holding the 31-year-old, a contributor to The Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers, among other publications.

The six Gulf states recognized a newly formed opposition bloc as the Syrian people's legitimate representative on Monday, as border violence stoked fears of a spillover of the country's 20-month conflict.

The Gulf Cooperation Council move came a year to the day after the Arab League suspended Syria's membership, and as the National Coalition met Arab foreign ministers in Cairo buoyed by the hard-won unity deal.

Syria's opposition agreed to unite after marathon talks in Doha, electing a moderate cleric as its leader with a prominent dissident and a female opposition figure named as his deputies.

Here are brief profiles of the three top figures of the newly-formed National Coalition:

NATO is ready to help member state Turkey as the 20-month conflict in Syria is increasingly spilling across the border, the alliance's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday.

"Turkey can rely on NATO solidarity, we have more plans in place to defend and protect Turkey, our ally, if needed," Rasmussen told reporters in Prague, but declined to go into details.

Iran on Monday called for improved ties with neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly on the economic front, as the autonomous region's prime minister visited Tehran, media reports said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the visiting premier, Nechirvan Barzani, that strengthened relations with Kurdistan could benefit Iraq, the presidency website reported.