Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, warned Israel on Friday against closing a wooden access ramp to the sensitive al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City.

"Jordan rejects any Israeli attempt to affect Jerusalem's holy sites, identity and heritage, including al-Moughrabi Gate" that leads to the compound's al-Buraq Wall, known to Jews as the Western Wall, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said.

An Israeli air strike killed a Gaza civilian and wounded 12 others, including seven children, when it hit a home next to a militant training ground, medics said on Friday.

The Israeli army expressed regret that civilians were hurt but blamed Gaza's Hamas rulers for operating within residential areas.

Syria's opposition warned Friday of a looming "massacre" as it reported thousands of regime forces and militiamen encircled the protest hub of Homs for an expected final assault to crush dissent.

The Syrian National Council issued the alert ahead of nationwide protests following the main weekly Muslim prayers called for in support of a campaign of escalating strikes starting on Sunday.

Egypt's biggest political group the Muslim Brotherhood clashed with the country's army leaders on Thursday, accusing them of trying to "marginalize" parliament over the writing of a new constitution.

Mohammed el-Baltagui, one of the leaders of the Brotherhood's political party, said the movement had pulled out of a contact group with the army leaders who have been in power since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak in February.

Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “will not escape justice,” the French foreign ministry stressed Thursday.

“France does not give any credibility to Bashar al-Assad’s provocative statements, which totally contradict with the fact that acts of repression and violence against the Syrian people have continued unabated,” ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters, referring to Assad’s recent interview with ABC News.

Iraq said it would try to convince neighboring Syria to accept an Arab League deal to end unrest and head off sweeping economic sanctions, during a visit by the group's chief to Baghdad on Thursday.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told journalists in the Iraqi capital that "the ball is in the Syrian court" but warned that if Damascus wanted to avoid sanctions, it would have to sign on to the initiative.

Syrian security forces on Thursday killed at least seven civilians including a woman in an assault on the restive central city of Homs, activists said.

The deaths occurred as the security forces used sniper fire and "arbitrary" shelling during raids on three districts of the city, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement sent to Agence France Presse.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis marched in the streets of the Yemeni capital on Thursday, chanting "no partnership with murderers," in reference to former regime loyalists that have been appointed to the newly formed unity government.

Yemen's Prime-Minister designate Mohammed Basindawa announced the new government Wednesday, with half the cabinet posts entrusted to members of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling party, and the other half to the opposition.

Nine suspected al-Qaida militants have been killed in an attack on a Yemeni military unit in the country's restive southern province of Abyan, a military official told Agence France Presse Thursday.

A Yemeni soldier was also killed in the attack which took place late Wednesday near Abyan's capital Zinjibar.

An Israeli air strike against a car in Gaza City on Thursday killed at least two Palestinians and wounded two others, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the reported strike, which Palestinian security sources said was carried out by an Israeli drone.