Syria's new opposition coalition signaled Saturday that it intends to move quickly to establish a broad-based alternative government to the regime of President Bashar Assad.

After talks with French President Francois Hollande, coalition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib assured the international community that the transitional government will be composed of technocrats rather than politicians, and include representatives of all the war-torn country's ethnic and religious groups.

A Turkish journalist who went missing in Syria in August and was believed to have been held by government troops has been freed and handed to Turkish lawmakers touring the country on Saturday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"I am very happy, I am doing well," Cuneyt Unal was quoted by the agency as saying by telephone from Syria.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday ordered the dispatch of urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, targeted by Israeli air strikes for a fourth straight day.

The Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization was instructed to "send urgent humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza who are facing suffering and difficult living conditions due to Israeli attacks," the royal palace said.

Syria's new opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib met Saturday with French President Francois Hollande for talks on protection of "liberated" zones, refugees and the formation of a provisional government for the war-torn state.

Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Khatib and his two deputies in the Elysee palace for talks that come just four days after France became the first Western country to recognize the newly-formed National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

A rocket fired by militants in the Gaza Strip lightly wounded four Israeli soldiers on Saturday, the army said, with military sources adding they were "inside a building" at the time.

"Three soldiers were wounded by a rocket which hit the Eshkol regional council," a military spokeswoman said, referring to an area along the southern flank of Israel's border with Gaza.

A car bomb exploded as rebel and regime forces clashed in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday, while mortar rounds struck near Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Two rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime were killed in fighting in Aleppo, said the Observatory, while a car bomb exploded in Liramun in the northwest of the city, and nearby areas were shelled.

Mohamed Bakhti, a prominent figure in Tunisia's Salafist movement, died on Saturday, nearly two months after launching a hunger strike following his arrest for an attack on the U.S. embassy, his lawyer said.

"He died in hospital at around 2:00 am overnight," said Abdelbasset Ben Mbarek, noting that his death came after another member of the Islamist movement, Bechir Gholli, died on Thursday also after refusing food for nearly two months.

Dozens of nursery school children were among 49 people killed Saturday when a train smashed into their bus in central Egypt after a railway signal operator fell asleep, officials said, prompting protests and resignations.

Transport Minister Rashad al-Metini stepped down in the wake of the tragedy, saying he "accepts responsibility," while President Mohamed Morsi also accepted the resignation of the Egyptian Railway Authority head.

Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem crossed into Gaza on Saturday for a solidarity visit, a Hamas spokesman said, as Israeli air strikes pounded the Palestinian enclave.

"The Tunisian delegation led by Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem has arrived in Gaza and is en route to the headquarters of the government destroyed by the occupation this morning, where he will meet with government officials," Interior Ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan told AFP.

Saudi Arabia's 89-year-old King Abdullah will undergo back surgery in Riyadh at noon on Saturday, state news agency SPA reported.

The monarch "will undergo a surgical operation to treat the looseness in the conjoining cord in the upper back at noon on Saturday in the King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard," said SPA.