France's foreign minister demanded Tuesday that Egypt's ousted president Mohammed Morsi be freed, describing the political crisis as "very critical" after bloody unrest in Cairo.

"We condemn the violence... We call for dialogue and for the release of president Morsi," Laurent Fabius told reporters.

A rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israel Tuesday, causing no casualties, a police spokesman said, as a first full day of resumed Middle East peace talks was to open.

"A rocket was fired from Gaza and exploded in a field in Israeli territory without causing any damage or casualties," Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

The Iraqi dentist never got over being kidnapped, chained to a bed and abused. Today, like millions of his countrymen running the gauntlet of daily violence, he lives in fear.

"He's changed completely. He's always nervous, even hostile. He never feels safe," says Dr Nesif al-Hemiary, a 50-year-old psychiatrist, speaking of his friend, whose identity he will not reveal.

Israel's chief negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, hailed a "positive" mood at resumed peace talks with the Palestinians in Washington, the first in three years.

"The atmosphere was positive," she told public radio early on Tuesday Israel time after a dinner with her Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erakat hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Egypt's ousted president on Tuesday, saying he was "well," but the country's political crisis seemed no closer to resolution despite her efforts.

Neither the interim government nor supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi showed any indication that they had shifted their positions after talks with Ashton, who left Cairo on Tuesday.

A U.S. drone strike killed three suspected al-Qaida militants in Yemen at dawn on Tuesday in the second such attack in three days, a tribal source told Agence France Presse.

"The car in which the three were travelling -- two Yemenis and a Saudi -- was blown to pieces and all of them were killed outright," the source said.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agreed Tuesday to meet again within the next two weeks, aiming to seal a final peace deal in nine months, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.

The two sides will meet in either Israel or the Palestinian territories and "our objective will be" to reach a "final status agreement over the course of the next nine months," Kerry told reporters after Israelis and Palestinians ended a three-year freeze on talks.

Eight Tunisian soldiers were killed Monday in a firefight with "terrorists" near the Algerian border where the army has been tracking al-Qaida-linked militants for months, national television said.

"Eight soldiers were killed as they exchanged fire with a terrorist group in Mount Chaambi," state broadcaster Wataniya 1 said, while other Tunisian media outlets put the toll at between seven and nine.

At least 15 people were killed on Monday night in a brawl between Cairo street vendors over space, including 13 who were burned to death, a security source told Agence France Presse.

The source said two people died of gunshot and stab wounds in an initial brawl in central Cairo, and 13 more were killed after the shop they took refuge in was set on fire.

A U.N. rights envoy on Monday highlighted the plight of thousands of people who have been abducted in the Syrian war.

Women gather outside government detention centers carrying photos of husbands and sons in the hope that they have been seen inside, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, head of an inquiry into Syria, told the U.N. General Assembly.