Tel Aviv  - Israeli aircraft bombed three tunnels running under the Gaza Strip-Sinai border early Wednesday morning, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

Secondary explosions were reported after one of the tunnels had been hit, indicating that explosives had been in it.

The tunnels are used to smuggle into the Strip goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade of the Hamas-run salient, but Israel says they are also used as a conduit to bring weapons into the enclave.

Tel Aviv  - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Israeli leaders Monday, and almost immediately paved the way for for a possible spat between the Obama administration and Israel's likely next prime minister.

Clinton lost no time in emphasizing the US commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has refrained from endorsing, although he has spoken of Palestinian self- government.

Tehran  - Iran is to hold an international conference on Palestine aimed at exposing Israeli's alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip, Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.

"Three panels at the Palestine conference will be allocated to international obligations to follow up [Israeli] war crimes and violation of human rights," Iran's prosecutor general, Ghorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, said.

The Palestine conference will be inaugurated Wednesday by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and attended by officials from Islamic and non-Islamic countries. No further details have yet been given about the participants.

Tel Aviv  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Israel Monday night for a 36-hour visit, during which she will hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The trip, Clinton's first to Israel and the Palestinian areas as Washington's top diplomat, is a familiarization visit.

According to the Ha'aretz daily, Clinton's discussions with Israeli officials will focus on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and on the formulation of a ceasefire agreement with the Islamic Hamas movement, which administers the Gaza Strip.

Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt  - As the sun set over the mountains ringing the Egyptian resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh on Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had reason to feel gratified.

Delegates from 75 donor countries pledged some 4.48 billion dollars over the course of a conference on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after Israel's 22-day offensive in late December and January.

World leaders praised Abbas and Acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as "responsible partners." They stressed that they would take pains not to deliver the aid to Abbas' Palestinian rivals in Hamas, who have controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday said the US was committed and she was "passionate" about building a lasting peace in the Middle East that is based on a two-state solution.

She was speaking at the end of an international donor conference for the Gaza Strip that was held in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh.

"We are committed to a two-state solution," Clinton told journalists. "I feel passionate about this ... it's not just part of my portfolio."