Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has sworn in a unity government, taking a major step toward ending a territorial and political split with the rival Hamas militant group but also setting the stage for new friction with Israel.

A Middle East summit bringing together Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is due to start today.

Palestinian militants attacked the Gaza Strip’s main cargo crossing with mortar fire early today, slightly wounding an Israeli truck driver in the latest flare-up of violence in the coastal strip.

An Associated Press photographer was released late tonight after a harrowing day in the hands of Palestinian gunmen who abducted him at gunpoint in Gaza - the latest in a string of kidnappings of foreigners in the chaotic area.