Iran's foreign ministry on Thursday condemned as "organized terrorism" a vast Israeli operation launched in the Gaza Strip.

Iran "strongly condemns the criminal act of Zionist (Israeli) military forces in killing civilians," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in remarks published on the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

Gunfire from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Thursday morning, the Israeli military said, in the latest spillover of violence from the bloody civil war raging across the ceasefire line.

"Stray bullets fired in Syria reached Israel. No soldiers were injured by the gunfire," a spokeswoman said.

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi rejected on Thursday what he called Israel's aggression in Gaza, saying it threatened to destabilize the region, while Cairo called on the US to stop Israel's strikes.

"The Israelis must understand that we do not accept this aggression, which can only lead to instability in the region," Morsi said in televised remarks, as Israeli air forces pummeled Gaza and militants fired rockets back in a deadly tit for tat.

French President Francois Hollande will on Saturday meet the new head of Syria's new opposition National Coalition, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, in Paris, his office said.

France on Tuesday became the first Western country to recognize the coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

Violence in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime erupted 20 months ago has claimed the lives of more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, a watchdog said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights listed 27,410 civilians, 9,800 soldiers and 1,359 military deserters as among those killed since the uprising began on March 15, 2011.

The Damascus region came under artillery fire and air strikes on Thursday as the army launched a major operation, a watchdog said, as activists decried the critical humanitarian situation.

The artillery was focused on the town of Daraya, just southwest of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, also reporting shelling on the northeast town of Mudamiyeh al-Sham and air raids on the nearby town of Saqba.

France will raise the issue of excluding defensive weapons from the current arms embargo on Syria to help rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday.

"For the moment, there is an embargo, so there are no arms being delivered from the European side. The issue... will no doubt be raised for defensive arms," Fabius told RTL radio.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani warned that Israel's deadly raids on the Islamist-controlled Gaza Strip must not go unpunished, state news agency QNA reported on Thursday.

"This vicious attack must not pass unpunished," QNA quoted the premier as saying at a Wednesday meeting in Saudi Arabia of the six Gulf Arab nations and Russia.

Arab nations demanded the U.N. Security Council condemn Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza at an emergency meeting late Wednesday, but the United States strongly defended Israel's military strikes.

Egypt and other Arab states called for the emergency meeting after Israel staged scores of air strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory, killing Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari.

Two more Gazans died as Israel pressed on with a major bombing campaign across Gaza on Thursday, raising the death toll to 15, and Palestinian fighters fired more than 250 rockets over the border, with two of them hitting the Tel Aviv area.

As Palestinian deaths from relentless air strikes on Gaza mounted, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave the go-ahead for 30,000 reservists to be called up and the military said it was "in the process of expanding the campaign."