Libya's former Prime Minister Abdessalam Jalloud is in Italy, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told reporters on Sunday, confirming reports that he had flown to Italy after defecting.

"Gadhafi's former number two is indeed in Italy," La Russa said, referring to Jalloud -- a popular figure who was once a close ally of Moammar Gadhafi but had been distanced from politics in recent years.

Red Cross delegates hope to visit soon thousands of Syrians jailed since the start of pro-democracy protests in mid-March, a spokesman for the ICRC said on Sunday.

"During his visit to Damascus June 21 and 22, ICRC chief Jakob Kellenberger made such a request," Saleh Dabbakeh, spokesman of the International Committee for the Red Cross, told AFP in the Syrian capital.

Jordan on Sunday urged an "immediate" halt to Israel's "military escalation" in the Gaza Strip, warning that it threatens regional stability.

"Jordan rejects and condemns Israel's military escalation and operations in Gaza that have killed civilians as well as Egyptian officers," information minister Abdullah Abu Rumman said in a statement carried by the state-run Petra news agency.

Turkish jets carried out air strikes against a Kurdish separatist group's bases in north Iraq for a fifth day on Sunday, and began shelling for the first time, a rebel spokesman told AFP.

"At about 11:00 am (0800 GMT), Turkish aircraft started bombing five areas," Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) spokesman Ahmed Denis told AFP by telephone. He said the areas being bombed were Qandil, Khowakirk, Haftan, Jabal Mattine and Jabal Karra, all along Iraq's border with Turkey.

Kuwait's public prosecution Sunday freed Islamist MP Mohammed Hayef after detaining him for one day for questioning over alleged threats to the Syrian ambassador, his lawyer said.

Hayef was detained after he initially refused to pay a 2,000-dinar ($7,350) bail "but later he agreed and paid the bail and was freed," lawyer Adel Abdul Hadi told Agence France Presse.

Rockets fired from Gaza early Sunday landed across the border in Egypt but caused no casualties, state television reported.

"Several rockets from the Gaza Strip landed this morning in Egyptian territory in the region west of the Rafah terminal, without causing casualties," the television reported.

The Libyan conflict appears to be drawing to a close, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in an interview on Sunday in which he also looked forward to economic deals for Italy under a new regime.

"Everything points to this tragedy coming to an end," Frattini told the Il Mattino daily, as NATO-backed rebels and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's supporters fought skirmishes in the streets of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

A lone protester became a hero to an exultant crowd of Egyptians and many more online by hauling down the Star of David flag atop Israel's embassy in Cairo after the border killing of Egyptian policemen.

More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy early Sunday and let off celebratory fireworks when the man clambered to the top floor of a high-rise housing the mission, replacing the flag with an Egyptian one.

Israelis and Palestinians woke up to a fourth day of violence on Sunday, with militants firing 17 rockets into Israel despite an unusually quiet night in Gaza just hours after a rocket killed an Israeli.

Tensions in and around the Gaza Strip have soared since Thursday when militants staged a series of bloody shooting attacks in the Negev desert, killing eight Israelis and prompting a wave of bloody tit-for-tat exchanges.

Eleven Yemeni tribesmen were killed overnight in two suicide attacks in the southern province of Abyan, a stronghold of Al-Qaida, tribal sources and medics told AFP on Sunday.

Tribal sources accused Al-Qaida members of carrying out the attacks in two villages of Abyan province, where Yemeni tribesmen and the army have been battling militants from the "Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law)" who are believed to be close to the Al-Qaida network.