Switzerland on Friday adopted new sanctions against Syria, falling into line with decisions taken by the European Union, a statement from the economy ministry in Bern said.

It also took action against two men suspected of links with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

More than 50,000 Muslim worshipers flooded al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for prayers on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice, Israeli police said.

"Some 50,000 attended morning prayers on the Temple Mount, and another 7,000 were there for afternoon services," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told Agence France Presse, adding that "everything went peacefully."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks next week with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on bilateral ties and the crisis in Syria, her spokesman said here on Friday.

Erdogan will arrive in Berlin Tuesday to open a new Turkish embassy building with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

A ceasefire in Syria appeared to be holding and may eventually allow the deployment of peacekeepers, a senior Arab League official said on Friday, hours after the truce began.

Ahmed Ben Hilli, the deputy secretary general of the Arab League, told AFP the truce brokered by U.N. and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was "being respected according to initial indications".

Ismail Haniya, head of the Hamas government in Gaza, on Friday called on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to release its "grip" on Palestinians staying in camps in Syria and on "Syrian brothers seeking their freedom and dignity."

"We feel the pain of our (Palestinian) people in camps in Syria, of martyrs and wounded ... May the criminal hand release its grip on children of our Palestinian people in Syria," Haniya said in his sermon for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have agreed to join forces for a general election in the new year, boosting the premier's position as favorite.

Netanyahu and Lieberman said Thursday they will present a joint list for the January 22 election without merging their respective parties, Likud and Yisrael Beitenu.

Russia accused Washington on Thursday of "coordinating" deliveries of arms to Syrian rebels, despite assurances by the State Department that the United States provides no lethal assistance.

"Washington is aware of the deliveries of various weapons to illegal armed groups active in Syria. Moreover, judging by the declarations of U.S. officials published in U.S. media, the U.S. coordinates and provides logistical assistance in such deliveries," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Deadly car bombings and artillery fire on Friday shattered a fragile truce between the warring parties in Syria just hours after it had begun on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

State television blamed "terrorists," the regime term for rebels, for a car bomb attack in Damascus that killed at least five people and wounded dozens, and a rights watchdog reported another deadly bombing farther south in Daraa.

Syria's army and main rebel force said they will cease fire on Friday, in line with an internationally backed truce during a Muslim holiday, but both reserved the right to respond to any aggression.

A peace initiative by U.N. and Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi calls for a truce during the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha from Friday marking the end of the hajj pilgrimage.

A militant died on Thursday of wounds sustained in an Israeli raid a day earlier as calm returned to the skies over Gaza after a truce took hold, ending 72 hours of bloodshed.

As Gaza began preparing for Eid al-Adha, which starts Friday, medical sources said 24-year-old Ahmed Hrzalla, a militant with the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) who was severely wounded in an air strike in Rafah, died of his injuries.