French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has broken with diplomatic protocol by openly expressing his hope that Barack Obama wins the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

"If I was an American citizen I wouldn't hesitate to vote for Obama," he told a radio interviewer on Wednesday.

Tensions soared around Gaza on Wednesday after Israeli air raids killed four fighters and Palestinian armed groups fired 68 rockets at southern Israel, seriously wounding two people.

It was the biggest surge in cross-border violence since June, and prompted both Israel and Gaza groups to vow they would not allow the attacks to go unanswered.

Canada's top diplomat blasted Iran for human rights violations and religious intolerance at a meeting Monday of world parliamentarians, drawing an angry response from Tehran's delegation.

Addressing 1,400 lawmakers at the gathering in Quebec City, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said Bahais and Christians in Iran were "consistently threatened with death and torture, simply for believing."

A court in southern Israel on Monday freed from custody three Israeli citizens who accompanied pro-Palestinian activists on a Gaza-bound boat intercepted by the Israeli navy, their lawyer said, while authorities said 10 foreigners were expelled.

Gaby Lasky said that the three Israelis had been placed under house arrest until Tuesday but were not expected to face further proceedings.

Qatar confirmed that its emir will visit the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, on the first such visit by an Arab head of state since the Islamist Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani "will make a brief visit to the Gaza Strip to inaugurate a number of projects funded by Qatar as part of its efforts to rebuilt the Strip," Qatar's official QNA news agency said on Monday.

Israeli air strikes killed two Gaza fighters on Monday as they clashed with troops who crossed the border on the eve of a landmark visit by the Qatari emir, medical sources said.

The flareup provoked threats of revenge from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, and a pledge from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there would be no immunity for those firing on the Jewish state.

Iran and the United States both denied any deal had been reached for one-on-one nuclear talks, as The New York Times reported -- even though the White House said it was open to such a dialogue.

The Times report on Saturday came at a key point in the U.S. presidential campaign, with incumbent Barack Obama set to face Republican rival Mitt Romney on Monday in their last of three debates, this one focused on foreign policy.

Israeli troops on Saturday boarded a boat carrying pro-Palestinian MPs and activists seeking to run its naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, blocking the latest attempt to reach the enclave by sea, the military said.

The operation, which the military said was concluded peacefully, ended the latest bid by activists to breach Israel's tight maritime embargo on Gaza which prohibits all naval traffic in and out of the Palestinian coastal territory.

Iran on Saturday condemned a car bombing in Beirut that killed eight people, including a top Lebanese security official, blaming it on arch foe Israel.

Tehran condemned "the terrorist blast which was carried out by those who aim to create division between different Lebanese groups that never serves the interests of Lebanon," spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a statement on the Foreign Ministry website.

The European Union's foreign policy chief on Thursday criticized Israel's plan to build hundreds of homes in annexed east Jerusalem and called for it to hold fresh talks with the Palestinians.

Catherine Ashton "deeply regrets" the Israeli interior ministry decision to back the expansion of the Gilo settlement by 797 units, said a statement from her office.