Middle Orient

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The plight of some 200 Gazans, stranded in no-man’s-land on the Israeli border in a desperate bid to flee last week’s Islamist takeover of the territory, is dividing Israeli opinion.

In a world where more people are on the move than ever, governments jittery about cross-border criminals, terrorists and illegal migrants must not shirk their duty to protect refugees, a UN official said on Tuesday.

Lebanese troops inched towards Islamic strongholds in a north Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday as mediators hinted at a possible ceasefire deal that includes the disarmament of the Al Qaeda-inspired gunmen.

US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged on Tuesday to bolster Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, as Israel sought to tighten the screws on Hamas Islamists who control Gaza.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — A massive truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in the heart of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing at least 65 people in the deadliest attack there in two months.

A leading Hamas politician in Gaza on Monday accused former Gaza strongman Muhammed Dahlan of having planned to “liquidate Hamas in the Gaza Strip and carry out large-scale massacres.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday sought to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his battle with Hamas for primacy, calling him a moderate voice and the only true leader of the Palestinian people.

Aid trucks from the United Nations World Food Program have rolled into the Gaza Strip for the first time since Hamas took control of the Palestinian territory last week.

At least 75 people died today when a car bomb exploded near a Shia mosque in a busy commercial district of Baghdad after a period of relative calm in the Iraqi capital.

The US military has said 10,000 US and Iraqi troops are taking part in a major operation against militants linked to al-Qaeda north of the capital, Baghdad.