Iranian Foreign Minister for Arab and Foreign Affairs Hussein Amir Abdul Lahyan is scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Thursday for talks with various officials, reported As Safir newspaper on Thursday.

It said that his talks will focus on regional affairs, most notably the Israeli campaign against the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes but have nowhere safe to shelter from Israeli airstrikes, charity Oxfam said on Wednesday, warning supplies of water and food are dangerously low.

Over 120,000 people are displaced but are prevented from escaping violence because borders with Israel and Egypt are shut, Oxfam said.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday renewed its ban on American flights to Tel Aviv for another 24 hours, citing the "potentially hazardous situation" in Israel and Gaza.

It first imposed the ban on Tuesday, then renewed it at 1615 GMT with a Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, that it said would be updated "within 24 hours."

The cancellation of European and U.S. flights to Israel due to rocket fire is further harming tourism in a region already paying for fierce fighting in Gaza, experts say.

But while the hospitality trade and small businesses are suffering, the broader Israeli economy is unlikely to be affected by the conflict with Hamas, in which more than 1,700 rockets and mortar shells fired from the Palestinian territory have so far hit southern and central Israel, they say.

Hamas said Wednesday that the suspension of international flights to and from Israel over security concerns about Gaza rocket fire was a "great victory."

"The success of Hamas in closing Israeli airspace is a great victory for the resistance, and is the crown of Israel's failure," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged the country's Jewish community Wednesday her unwavering support as she condemned anti-Semitic slurs and threats at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, a government spokesman said.

The spokesman, Georg Streiter, said Germany would not tolerate aggression against the resurgent Jewish population, after protests against the Israeli offensive in Gaza where violent slogans were used.

For the first time in years, Gaza City's Greek Orthodox church is packed to overflowing, having offered refuge to hundreds of Palestinians who fled their homes under Israeli bombardment.

Around 600 people, mostly women and children, are sheltering in the church compound in the old sector of Gaza City, after escaping the inferno of neighbouring areas like Shejaiya.

Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip could amount to war crimes, U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay said Wednesday while also condemning indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian militants Hamas.

"There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Pillay told an emergency session on Israel's Gaza offensive at the U.N. Human Rights Council, citing attacks that have killed Palestinian civilians, including children.

Washington's top diplomat said global efforts to end 16 days of bloodshed in Gaza were progressing Wednesday as the fighting raged on and airlines kept flights suspended over rocket fears.

As U.S. and U.N. diplomats continued intensive diplomacy, the Islamist Hamas movement rejected any truce without the lifting of Israel's eight-year blockade on Gaza.

National carrier Royal Jordanian said on Wednesday it has suspended flights to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion international airport after a Gaza rocket struck near runways.

The announcement by the airline, which operates 20 weekly flights to Tel Aviv, was made in a short statement carried by state-run Petra news agency.