Dozens of demonstrators occupied the roof of the Tel Aviv stock exchange on Thursday morning, Israeli military radio reported, as protests over the high cost of living spread throughout Israel.

Protesters scaled the building a day after the powerful Histadrut labor union threw its support behind the demonstrators, who have set up tent cities across Israel to protest the high cost of housing.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Thursday without causing injuries or damage, the Israeli military said.

The rocket landed in an open field in the Hof Ashkelon region, the military said, adding that the projectile was the 24th to hit Israel this month.

Countries rocked by the Arab Spring uprisings face "turbulent and difficult" times, Britain's foreign secretary warned Thursday, hours after expelling diplomats loyal to Moammar Gadhafi from Britain.

William Hague said the movements could be derailed by faltering economies, sectarian feuds and counter-revolutions, predicting "a lot of problems and even convulsions" for years to come, in an interview with The Times.

Almost 3,000 people have gone missing in Syria since the start of anti-regime protests more than four months ago, the Avaaz non-governmental organization said in a statement on Thursday.

"Avaaz has today revealed the identities of 2,918 Syrians who have been arrested by Syrian security forces and whose whereabouts are now unknown," the organization said in statement received by Agence France Presse in Nicosia.

Scores of Palestinian police on Thursday raided the Ramallah home of ex-strongman Mohammed Dahlan who is under investigation for murder and corruption.

Witnesses in Ramallah's al-Tirah neighborhood said a large number of police and security forces had surrounded his home at 7:00 am (04:00 GMT) before forcing their way in and arresting around 10 of his bodyguards.

Al-Qaida's new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri praised anti-regime protestors in Syria in a video released Wednesday claiming the United States is seeking regime change in Damascus, U.S.-based monitors said.

Calling the pro-democracy activists "mujahideen," or holy warriors, Zawahiri hailed their efforts in "teaching lessons to the aggressor, the oppressor, the traitor, the disloyal, and standing up against his oppression" in a video the SITE Intelligence Group said was posted on extremist online forums.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Wednesday said he was ready for "sacrifice" to defeat NATO and the rebels who are trying to unseat him, in an audio message to his loyalists.

"We are not afraid. We will defeat them," the Libyan strongman said of the NATO alliance and the insurgents.

Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak, due to go on trial next week for murder, is refusing food in his hospital detention and has become extremely weak, state media reported on Wednesday.

Mubarak, 83, has been detained since April on charges of ordering the killings of anti-regime protesters and corruption. He is under arrest in a Red Sea resort hospital, where he receives treatment for a heart condition.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari demanded on Wednesday that Iran stop shelling positions of Kurdish rebels inside Iraq, saying it damages ties between the neighboring countries.

"We again demand that the Iranian government stop its continuing shelling" of the separatist Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) "because this is not constructive for Iraqi-Iranian relations and damages ties," he told reporters.

A suicide bomber blew himself up to avoid arrest in the eastern Algerian town of Bouhamza, causing no other casualties, newspapers reported Wednesday.

According to El Watan's online edition, the suspect set off an explosives belt he was wearing when local security encircled him as he left a shop after buying large quantities of food on Tuesday.