Gaza was in shock and mourning Friday after a radical Islamist group killed an Italian activist hours after kidnapping him in an act deplored by Rome as "barbaric."

Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, who was working with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was found dead by the security forces in a house in northern Gaza early on Friday.

Israeli warplanes launched raids against targets in Gaza overnight after two rockets were fired at Israel from the coastal enclave, Palestinian security officials said on Saturday.

No one was hurt in the air attacks which struck bases of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza, in Gaza City and east of it, one source said.

Thousands of protesters massed across Syria after weekly Muslim prayers on Friday as a global outcry widened over a deadly crackdown on month-old, anti-regime demonstrations.

Opposition’s mouthpiece Sham News Network reported that several protesters were wounded when “thugs and security forces” opened fire on them in the Latakia neighborhood of Slaibeh.

Human Rights Watch accused Syrian security and intelligence services Thursday of torturing many of the hundreds of protesters detained since anti-government demonstrations began last month.

Lawyers, activists and journalists who have endorsed or promoted the protests have also been detained, the rights group said.

Iran has smuggled more weapons to Hizbullah, Syria, and Palestinian groups in recent months, taking advantage of the wave of unrest in the Middle East, reported the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday.

Because international attention is focused mainly on regime changes and local intelligence services are busy protecting their rulers, the Iranians have been able to act with greater impunity, it said

Islamists, youth groups and other opposition parties plan to hold pro-reform demonstrations across Jordan on Friday, as Americans were told to avoid protest areas.

The powerful Islamic Action Front (IAF) and other groups, including leftists, will march after Friday midday prayers from Al-Hussein mosque in Amman city center to the nearby city hall "to emphasize national unity and demand reform," they said in an advertisement in local papers.

Syria denied on Thursday a claim by the United States that Iran was helping it to crack down on demonstrations for more freedom and political reforms that have left more than 100 people dead.

The Syrian foreign ministry denied as "totally false" the U.S. charge, challenging the U.S. State Department to publish any evidence in that regard, Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported.

Syria announced an amnesty Thursday for scores of prisoners detained since a wave of protests erupted on March 15 as it unveiled a new cabinet to replace the one that quit last month.

The promised release of prisoners came amid a growing international outcry over the authorities' crackdown on the demonstrations that have now spread from the provinces to the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo.

At least 13 people were killed and some 50 wounded Thursday in an attack by Moammar Gadhafi's forces on the port area of Libya's third city Misrata, a rebel spokesman said.

"At least 13 people died, including women and children and four Egyptians who had attempted to be evacuated from the port," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for a "political" solution and immediate ceasefire to the conflict in Libya, at an international conference hosted by the Arab League in Cairo.

"We call for a political process so that the Libyan people can reach their aspirations," Ban, who co-chaired the meeting, told a news conference at the end of the gathering.