U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns called on Friday for long-term solutions to fight terrorism, a phenomenon he said posed "serious threats" in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

"Our goal now is to put into place long-term solutions," Burns said at a meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum in Abu Dhabi.

Thousands of Syrians took to the streets on Friday, criticizing Washington for blacklisting the rebel jihadist group Al-Nusra Front, as regime troops bombed southern districts of Damascus and clashes were reported around two military schools in the north of the country.

The protesters demonstrated under the slogan: "There is no terrorism in Syria except that of Assad."

Tens of thousands of devotees gathered in Rabat on Friday for the funeral of Abdessalam Yassine, the founder of a radical Moroccan Islamist movement whose outspoken criticism of the monarchy landed him in jail.

Sheikh Yassine founded the Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Charity) movement, which actively participated in Arab Spring protests that erupted in Morocco in February 2011, as revolutions swept Egypt and Tunisia.

A young Palestinian man was lightly wounded by Israeli army gunfire in southern Gaza on Friday, Palestinian security sources said.

They said the man, 22, was hit when soldiers fired shots in the air and then at a group of around 20 Palestinians near the security fence between Israel and Gaza in the Khan Younis area.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a key ally of the premier, resigned on Friday after having been charged with breach of trust, barely five weeks ahead of general elections.

"I am not legally bound to submit my resignation... but I have decided to step down from my duties as foreign minister and deputy premier," the controversial ultra-nationalist leader said in a statement.

An opposition leader tolerated by the Syrian regime said Friday that the blacklisting of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front by Washington may be used to justify foreign intervention in the country's crisis.

"The question is, why did they (the Americans) put Al-Nusra Front on their list of terror organizations," demanded Qadri Jamil, Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs and head of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, an opposition party tolerated by the regime.

The Palestinians will shortly decide which international organizations to join in the wake of their new-found U.N. status, including courts likely to act against Israel, negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh says.

"We have put together a legal team to study to which organization we shall apply first and what are the procedures of accession and what are the benefits and the consequences of accession into any of these," he said, giving as examples the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Doing nothing is not an option in Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday as his European Union counterparts pledged to look at "all options" available to support the opposition and civilians.

"Inaction and indifference are not options," said Cameron, whose government has formally recognized a recently formed Syrian opposition coalition.

The German parliament approved by a wide majority on Friday the deployment of Patriot missiles to help Turkey defend its border against conflict-riven Syria as part of a NATO mission.

The vote clears the way for Germany to deploy the missiles to southern Turkey along with up to 400 German soldiers after NATO member state Turkey asked the alliance for help.

The son-in-law of Tunisia's deposed former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been arrested in the Seychelles, the Tunisian authorities announced on Friday.

Sakhr El Materi, who was convicted in absentia for corruption by a Tunisian court, fled to Qatar after the mass uprising that toppled his father-in-law in January 2011, but the Gulf emirate agreed to expel him in September this year.