A young Palestinian man was lightly wounded by Israeli army gunfire in southern Gaza on Friday, Palestinian security sources said.

They said the man, 22, was hit when soldiers fired shots in the air and then at a group of around 20 Palestinians near the security fence between Israel and Gaza in the Khan Younis area.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a key ally of the premier, resigned on Friday after having been charged with breach of trust, barely five weeks ahead of general elections.

"I am not legally bound to submit my resignation... but I have decided to step down from my duties as foreign minister and deputy premier," the controversial ultra-nationalist leader said in a statement.

Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr noted on Friday that Interpol's announcement that it will not deal with the Syrian arrest warrants against him, former Premier Saad Hariri, and Syrian opposition member Louay al-Meqdad is a “heavy blow” to President Bashar Assad and his regime.

He said in a statement: “The announcement was a heavy blow against Assad, the regime, and their Lebanese allies.”

Russian investigators said Friday that they had launched a fraud probe against opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his brother, putting new legal pressure on the protest movement's most charismatic figure.

The new probe -- the second major investigation launched against Navalny -- also comes as the opposition plans an unsanctioned rally Saturday in Moscow after the City Hall denied to authorize their proposed routes.

An opposition leader tolerated by the Syrian regime said Friday that the blacklisting of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front by Washington may be used to justify foreign intervention in the country's crisis.

"The question is, why did they (the Americans) put Al-Nusra Front on their list of terror organizations," demanded Qadri Jamil, Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs and head of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, an opposition party tolerated by the regime.

The Palestinians will shortly decide which international organizations to join in the wake of their new-found U.N. status, including courts likely to act against Israel, negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh says.

"We have put together a legal team to study to which organization we shall apply first and what are the procedures of accession and what are the benefits and the consequences of accession into any of these," he said, giving as examples the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Doing nothing is not an option in Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday as his European Union counterparts pledged to look at "all options" available to support the opposition and civilians.

"Inaction and indifference are not options," said Cameron, whose government has formally recognized a recently formed Syrian opposition coalition.

The elderly mother of Nigeria's finance minister was on Friday freed from kidnappers after being abducted from her home in the country's south last weekend in a crime that shocked the country, police said.

Details of the release were unclear and there was no indication of whether a ransom was paid to free the 82-year-old Kamene Okonjo, whose daughter Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a high-profile minister and ex-World Bank managing director.

The German parliament approved by a wide majority on Friday the deployment of Patriot missiles to help Turkey defend its border against conflict-riven Syria as part of a NATO mission.

The vote clears the way for Germany to deploy the missiles to southern Turkey along with up to 400 German soldiers after NATO member state Turkey asked the alliance for help.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Friday that it was important to increase humanitarian aid by international organizations to Syrian refugees.

Suleiman briefed EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis response Kristalina Georgieva the efforts exerted by the Lebanese government to help the displaced Syrians.