The Israeli army rearrested a Palestinian former prison hunger striker in the West Bank on Wednesday, nearly a year after his release, a Palestinian official said.

Thaer Halahla, 35, who was held without charge by Israel for almost two years until June 2012, was rearrested in Ramallah, an official in the Palestinian Authority's ministry for prisoners' affairs told Agence France Presse.

An Arab Israeli was indicted on Wednesday for contact with an enemy agent after he went to Syria and joined rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad, security officials said.

Hikmat Massarwa, from Taibe village in Galilee, was also charged at Lod District Court with undergoing military training and for travelling overseas illegally, the Shin Bet domestic security agency said.

The head of Syria's jihadist al-Nusra Front on Wednesday pledged allegiance to al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message, but distanced his group from claims it had merged with al-Qaida in Iraq.

"The sons of al-Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri," Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said in the recording.

Jordan opened a second camp for Syrian refugees on Wednesday after the United Nations said the number seeking shelter in the kingdom is expected to triple by the end of the year.

A first group of 106 refugees, who were among 1,306 who crossed the border during the night, were moved to the new Mrigeb al-Fuhud camp, government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs, Anmar Hmud, told Agence France Presse.

The United States is mulling ways to step up support for the Syrian opposition, a top U.S. official said Wednesday, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and G8 ministers were to meet rebel leaders.

"The United States every single day thinks about what more we can do to help bring this horrible situation to an end," the senior U.S. administration official said, asking not to be identified.

Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens Wednesday in the eastern province of Qatif after he was convicted of murdering a fellow Saudi, the interior ministry said.

Ali al-Saeedi shot dead Ali Abdelhay during a dispute, said the statement published by the official SPA news agency.

Israel on Wednesday defended a decision to turn away two Moroccan MPs trying to enter the West Bank from Jordan earlier this week saying they did not have entry visas.

"Every Moroccan citizen, whether or not they are part of a delegation, needs a visa to enter the West Bank via Israel," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Agence France Presse.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has posted online an audio message from its second-in-command, Saeed al-Shehri, whose death was announced by Yemen in January, a monitoring group reported Wednesday.

The 14-minute audio produced by AQAP's media arm Al-Malahem Foundation is accompanied by what the U.S.-based SITE Monitoring Service said was a new photograph of the Saudi militant.

Rescuers Wednesday wound up operations after pulling 20 people from the rubble of an earthquake that struck near the port city of Bushehr, killing 37 people but sparing Iran's sole nuclear power plant.

"With the rescue operation being wrapped up no one is left under the rubble," the Fars news agency quoted the head of Iran's Red Crescent rescue corps, Mahmoud Mozafar, as saying.

Guatemala has recognized Palestine as a sovereign state in the belief that this will help foster peace in the Middle East, the president's office announced Tuesday.

Guatemala "has decided to join tha vast majority of Latin American and Caribbean countries and recognize the State of Palestine, as a free, sovereign and independent State," the statement said.