50 killed in Syria as regime pounds Homs BEIRUT - President Bashar Assad's forces pounded rebel-held areas in central Syria on Friday, killing at least 22 people, activists said. More than 60 nations meeting in Tunisia asked the United Nations to start planning for a civilian peacekeeping mission that would deploy after the Syrian regime halts its crackdown. As government troops relentlessly shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in the besieged city of Homs, thousands of people in dozens of towns staged anti-regime protests under the slogan: "We will revolt for your sake, Baba Amr," referring to the Homs neighborhood that has become the center of the Syrian revolt. Activists said at least 50 people were killed nationwide. In Tunisia, the U.S., European and Arab nations asked the U.N. to start drafting plans for a civilian peacekeeping mission that would deploy after the Damascus regime halts the brutal crackdown. Still unwilling to commit to military intervention to end the bloodshed, the group offered nothing other than the threat of increasing isolation and sanctions to compel compliance from Assad, who has ignored similar demands. In Washington, President Barack Obama said the U.S. and its allies would consider "every tool available" to stop the slaughter of innocent people in Syria. He did not give specifics about what that might entail. It is time for that regime to move on. And it is time to stop the killing of Syrian citizens by their own government," he said. On Thursday, former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan was appointed the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy on the Syrian crisis. Red Cross evacuates wounded in Homs, Syria Clinton blasts China, Russia over Syria On Thursday, U.N.-appointed investigators in Geneva said they had compiled a list of Syrian officials accused of crimes against humanity in the crackdown. But in a move highlighting Assad's deepening isolation, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza voiced support for Syrian protesters seeking to overthrow his regime. It was the first time that a senior Hamas figure has publicly backed the uprising and rebuked the Syrian regime. "We commend the brave Syrian people that are moving toward democracy and reform," Ismail Haniyeh told congregants after Friday prayers in Egypt's Al-Azhar Mosque, the country's pre-eminent Islamic institution. Assad has long hosted and supported leaders of the Hamas movement, which rules Gaza, but the group has significantly reduced the presence of its exiled leaders in Syria in the wake of protests. Four people died Friday in the renewed shelling of the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, activists said, the latest of hundreds killed there in recent weeks. The neighborhood has been under siege and intense shelling for three weeks. A Red Cross spokesman said the group has evacuated seven people from Baba Amr to a hospital elsewhere in the city. Hicham Hassan said he did not know whether those evacuated included two foreign journalists who were wounded earlier this week. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four others were killed in Homs' rebel-held neighborhood of Khaldiyeh while 14 were killed in shelling of the central Qarabeen neighborhood. Amateur videos posted on the Internet by activists showed black smoke rising from residential areas of Baba Amr and debris littering its slum-like apartment blocks. Parts of Homs, Syria's third-largest city, have been under a fierce government attack for nearly three weeks. The Observatory said troops were also attempting to storm Rastan, a besieged rebel-held town just north of Homs. He said the town was being shelled and reported heavy clashes between troops and army defectors who destroyed two armored personnel carriers. The Observatory said 50 civilians were killed throughout Syria on Friday, including a father and his three sons in the central village of Kfar Alton in the province of Hama that came under intense government troops shelling. The Local Coordination Committees activist network said 97 people were killed by security forces across Syria Friday, but the number could not be immediately confirmed by others. In the northwestern town of Kfar Takharim, APTN video showed activists and youths demonstrating in the streets and chanting anti-Assad slogans.