U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry huddled Friday with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Egypt's foreign minister as pressure built for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Kerry, who spent another night in Cairo reaching out by telephone to regional officials, met Ban and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri for around half an hour.

A new power struggle has emerged within the Syrian rebellion after Al-Qaida announced it aims to create an Islamic "emirate" to compete with rival jihadist group, the Islamic State (IS).

As with IS in its early days, when it was still known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Al-Qaida affiliate the Al-Nusra Front is spreading its zone of influence, taking over strategically located villages, and competing with other rebel groups.

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said Friday it fired three rockets at Tel Aviv airport, a day after U.S. and some European airlines had resumed flights after a two-day suspension.

"At 11:45 am (0845 GMT), the Qassam Brigades bombarded Ben Gurion airport with three M75 rockets," a statement from Hamas's armed wing said.

Turkey's foreign minister flew into Qatar Friday amid mounting U.S. calls on the two Western allies to use their influence with Palestinian movement Hamas to end the bloodshed around Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been spearheading Western efforts to end the Palestinian territory's deadliest violence since 2008-9, has repeatedly telephoned both Qatari and Turkish leaders in an effort to broker a truce.

An offensive by the jihadist Islamic State group against Syrian government-held territory has killed at least 74 people in the past 24 hours, a monitoring group said on Friday.

Buoyed by their capture of swathes of western and north-central Iraq last month launched multiple attacks on army positions across northern and northeastern Syria on Thursday.

Iranians rallied nationwide on Friday in a show of support for Palestinians as arch-foe Israel pursued its deadly campaign against the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrations were held in Tehran and more than 700 towns and cities across the country on the last day of prayer and rest of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, state television reported.

Jordan shot down a drone on Friday as it flew over the northeastern region of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, a security official said.

In the first such incident since the conflict erupted in neighboring Syria in 2011, "the Jordanian armed forces shot down an unidentified drone with a missile as it flew over Mafraq," the official told AFP.

Jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste will lodge an appeal against the conviction and seven-year sentence handed down by an Egyptian court, his family said Friday.

Greste and two Al-Jazeera colleagues -- Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian national Baher Mohamed -- were jailed last month for defaming Egypt and aiding banned Islamists.

The United States on Thursday threw its weight behind the newly elected president of Iraq, Fuad Masum, and urged him to form a "cohesive government" to help fight Islamic militants.

"By taking this crucial step, the Council of Representatives has demonstrated its commitment to uniting the country according to the constitution," deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said, offering Washington's congratulations on Masum's election.

France announced on Friday there were no survivors among the 116 people on board the Air Algerie flight that crashed over Mali, saying bad weather was the likely cause of the disaster.

"Sadly, there are no survivors," President Francois Hollande said on television, a day after flight AH017, carrying 54 French nationals, went down shortly after take-off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.