Syrian rebels announced on Tuesday the creation of a security service to "defend the Syrian revolution" in a country that has been awash with feared intelligence agencies for the past five decades.

Its objective is "to be a powerful security shield to protect the sons of the revolution from attacks, arrests and killings," and to hunt down members of the opposition who have committed abuses, according to a video statement by the rebels.

A senior Libyan delegation is to visit the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in a show of solidarity for the Palestinian people under Israeli attack, a government official said.

The source told AFP the team will be led by Salah al-Makhzoum, vice president of the National Assembly, Libya's highest political authority, and deputy prime minister Al-Seddik Krayem.

Egyptian and Hamas officials said they believed they could reach an agreement to end the week-long Gaza conflict on Tuesday but a truce hinged on Israeli assent to a Cairo-mediated ceasefire plan, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the region to make an urgent push for peace.

The emerging signs of a deal to end seven days of violence that have claimed the lives of 136 Palestinians came as the Israeli army confirmed its first two fatalities from rocket attacks while another missile landed harmlessly just south of Jerusalem.

Britain on Tuesday recognized Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people, becoming the latest Western country to give its backing to the group.

Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament he took the decision after he met coalition leaders in London on Friday and they assured him that they have backing inside Syria and would respect human rights.

Six Iraqi children died when houses in the city of Kut collapsed during heavy rains, which also flooded Baghdad streets and destroyed homes elsewhere in the country, officials said on Tuesday.

Winter brings periodic heavy rains to Iraq, which the country is ill-equipped to handle, both in terms of shoddily-built homes that can buckle during storms and lacking drainage for flood waters.

Israel will "pay a heavy price" if it launches a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Hamas's top military commander warned in a rare audio message broadcast on Tuesday.

"The enemy will pay a heavy price if it thinks of entering Gaza," Mohammed Deif said in the audio message carried by Hamas television station Al-Aqsa.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza, saying the Jewish state's air raids could not be considered self defense.

"Israel is committing ethnic cleansing by ignoring peace in this region and violating international law," Erdogan said. "It is occupying the Palestinian territory step by step."

Israel is solely responsible for the conflict in Gaza and should be tried for "war crimes," Iran said on Tuesday while stressing that the Palestinians must be "armed to defend" themselves.

"Neither Iran nor Hamas seek conflict or war, or aim to endanger the lives of innocent people," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in his weekly briefing.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he feared that the militarization of the conflict in Syria could turn the country into a "regional battleground."

"We are deeply concerned about the continued militarization of the conflict, horrendous violations of human rights and the risk of Syria turning into a regional battleground as the violence intensifies," Ban told reporters during a visit to Cairo.

Security guards at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday fired shots at a man who attacked them with a knife and an axe, an Israeli police spokeswoman said, indicating the attacker had been apprehended.

"A suspect came to the U.S. embassy at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) with a knife and an axe and attacked a security guard," spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP, saying the guard was injured in the leg, prompting his colleagues to open fire.