Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned on Wednesday an assault on an ultra-Orthodox soldier by coreligionists in a religious neighborhood of Jerusalem, vowing a tough line against anyone threatening army personnel.

"We will crack down on anyone who tries to terrorize civilians who are fulfilling their duty to the state," he said, following the incident on Tuesday night, which saw a soldier forced to hide in a building in Mea Shearim after a group of ultra-Orthodox hurled stones at him.

A military court on Wednesday postponed until next week a bail application by Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, who faces terror charges in Jordan following his deportation from Britain, his lawyer said.

"The state security court today postponed until next week its decision to look into my request to release Abu Qatada on bail," Taysir Diab told Agence France Presse.

Egypt's public prosecutor on Wednesday ordered the arrest of Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohammed Badie and other top leaders of the movement for allegedly inciting violence that left dozens dead, judicial sources said.

At least 51 people were killed in clashes Monday outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi were calling for him to be reinstated.

Many devout Muslims in the Middle East have started observing the dawn-to-dusk fast for the month of Ramadan even as the region is rocked by Egypt's turmoil and the relentless civil war in Syria.

For most Sunnis and Shiites, Ramadan started on Wednesday while others are expected to begin observing the holy month on Thursday — differences based on various sightings of the new moon.

Egypt's National Salvation Front, the main coalition that backed the overthrow of president Mohammed Morsi, on Wednesday toned down its criticism of an interim charter to say it merely disagreed with some provisions.

On Tuesday night, the coalition had sent a statement saying: "The National Salvation Front announces its rejection of the constitutional decree."

Activist Alaa Morelli escaped the worst in Syrian prisons, but to secure her freedom she lied during a forced "confession" on state television, saying the uprising was the work of foreigners.

A student of Latakia university located on Syria's Mediterranean coastline, Morelli, 23, was arrested on June 12 last year, just after sitting one of her second-year exams.

Human rights groups condemned on Wednesday the use of "excessive" force by Egyptian security forces and called for an independent investigation into clashes outside an elite army unit that left more than 50 people dead.

In a joint statement, 15 leading Egyptian rights groups expressed their "strong condemnation of the excessive force used by army and security forces" against supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi who were protesting against his overthrow by the military.

Opponents and supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi blasted a new charter granting Egypt's interim president extensive powers, as talks for a new cabinet were to begin Wednesday.

The military's ouster a week ago of Morsi, after massive protests calling for his resignation, pushed the divided country into a vortex of violence that has already claimed dozens of lives.

Two people died in a militant attack on a security checkpoint in Egypt's Sinai on Wednesday, as a police base elsewhere in the peninsula came under mortar fire, medics said.

The medics and security officials said one of the dead appeared to be a civilian whose car was hit by a grenade. They did not identify the other casualty.

Ministers from the Istiqlal party quit Morocco's Islamist-led ruling coalition on Tuesday, a spokesman for the conservative party told Agence France Presse, threatening a government shakeup or snap elections.

"It's official, our ministers have just presented their resignation to the head of the government (Abdelilah Benkirane)," Istiqlal spokesman Adil Benhamza said.