An Israeli delegation arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss with Egyptian officials a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, airport officials said.

Cairo, a key mediator in truce negotiations between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, was also expected to host a Palestinian delegation later this week.

The Swiss foreign ministry said Wednesday it is in talks about holding an international conference sought by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas focusing on protecting civilians in Gaza.

"Switzerland has begun consultations with state parties to the Geneva Conventions, following an official Palestinian request that a conference be held by the end of the year," said a ministry statement.

Israel expressed "deep disappointment" Wednesday after Chile, El Salvador and Peru recalled their ambassadors over its military campaign in Gaza, saying they are encouraging Hamas in its attacks on the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, El Salvador's foreign ministry recalled its envoy for urgent consultations, speaking of what it called "indiscriminate" Israeli bombing of Gaza.

Influential British band Massive Attack dedicated their only Middle East gig to the children of Gaza, openly condemning Israel's "massacre" of the Palestinians.

As the band played in Byblos, in Lebanon, just a few hundred kilometers north of Gaza, swaying music-lovers on Tuesday night held up Palestinian flags as Massive Attack issued a rare, explicit condemnation of Israel's offensive.

Israeli holiday makers were evacuated from their Maldivian resort after one of them tore up an anti-Israeli placard equating the Nazi Swastika to the Israeli flag, officials said Wednesday.

Some 30 Israeli surfers were moved out to safety from Thulusdhoo island, near the capital island Male, as residents of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim archipelago protested the pulling down of anti-Israeli placards.

Three youths were in custody over the savage beating of two Palestinians by a Jewish mob in the east Jerusalem settlement of Neve Yaakov, Israeli police announced Wednesday.

"A Jerusalem court has to decide whether to extend the detention of the three Jewish men suspected of attacking two east Jerusalem residents on July 25," a statement said.

An Israeli infantry unit abducted on Wednesday a shepherd from the southern border town of Shebaa a day after two shepherds escaped when soldiers seized their flock of goats, the Lebanese army said.

The army and the state-run National News Agency said Ismail Khalil Nabaa was kidnapped and taken to the occupied Shebaa Farms area at dawn Wednesday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be "glad" to return an award given to him in 2004 by an American Jewish group, Turkey's embassy in the U.S. said Tuesday, amid a growing controversy over the premier's anti-Israel remarks.

The American Jewish Congress had given Erdogan the Profile of Courage award in recognition of his efforts to seek peace in the Middle East but now wants the decoration to be returned after his repeated verbal assaults against Israel over the Gaza conflict.

German police detained an 18-year-old man over an attempted arson attack against a synagogue Tuesday which drew a shocked reaction from the country's Jewish community.

The building in the western city of Wuppertal was not damaged in the incident and no one was hurt, a police spokesman said.

Hamas has said it hopes Hizbullah will open a new front from southern Lebanon against Israel, which is currently embroiled in a deadly confrontation with the Palestinian movement in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“We hope the Lebanese front will be opened so that we can fight this entity (Israel) together,” said Moussa Abu Marzouq, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau.