Log In | Register
JERUSALEM — Israel said it would return to Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary as it mounted new airstrikes Tuesday on the Palestinian territory after militants fired more rockets at a nearby Israeli town.
Israel pulled its settlers and troops out of Gaza in 2005, and last June, Islamic Hamas militants violently seized control there. Responding to persistent Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israel, the military launched an offensive last week that Palestinians officials say has killed more than 120 in Gaza. Three Israelis have also been killed.
"We cannot afford this kind of extreme Islamic state controlled by Hamas," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told foreign diplomats in a meeting, according to a ministry statement released Tuesday. Israel evacuated Gaza "not in order to come back, but we might find ourselves in a situation where we have no choice," Livni said.
The violence persisted even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived in the region Tuesday, appealed to Israelis and Palestinians to get back to peace negotiations.
Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who controls a West Bank government that rivals Hamas' Gaza regime, called off talks with Israel Sunday to protest an exceptionally high death toll from the latest military incursion in Gaza.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Rice in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Abbas said "peace and negotiations are our strategic choice" but fell short of announcing a resumption of talks.
"I call on the Israeli government to halt its aggression so the necessary environment can be created to make negotiations succeed, for us and for them, to reach the shores of peace in 2008," Abbas said, referring to the goal of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty stated at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in November.
Israel began the offensive last week after militants fired rockets at the city of Ashkelon, 11 miles north of Gaza, reaching closer to Israel's heartland than ever before.
But the offensive has failed to stop the rocket fire from Gaza. On Tuesday, militants hit a house in the rocket-weary town of Sderot, less than a mile from Gaza. It caused no injuries but extensive damage. Another landed in an open area.
Israel pulled its ground forces out of Gaza on Monday while continuing air assaults against persistent Palestinian attacks. But Israeli leaders have signaled that a broad invasion of Gaza is in the works to halt rocket fire that is striking closer to Israel's center.
Israeli forces launched several air and ground strikes on rocket squads and Hamas installations early Tuesday, killing one militant, Hamas said. The body of a Palestinian militant was also found near the Gaza-Israel border. Medics said it was not clear when the man had been killed.
The Gaza bloodshed has illustrated the huge challenges facing the U.S.-sponsored peace push. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas have set a December target for a peace agreement. But with Hamas firmly in control of Gaza, it remains unclear how any deal can be carried out.
The violence has transformed Rice's previously scheduled mission from nudging the sides toward progress in peace talks to rescuing the negotiations from collapse.
Although Abbas has had no power over Gaza since Hamas seized control, the high death toll, which included dozens of civilians, made it difficult for him to continue the talks.
Rice called for the resumption of peace talks as soon as possible, saying they were necessary to counter Hamas' influence.
"What we are trying to achieve is not easy ... but I do believe it can be done. We need very much for everybody to be focused on peace," she told the news conference with Abbas.
Referring to the opponents of peace, she said: "We won't let them win."
Rice also said that Israel should make "a very strong effort to spare innocent life" in Gaza.
In earlier comments, Rice backed Israel's right to respond to the rocket fire, but said it must avoid civilian casualties.
"The rocket attacks against innocent Israelis in their cities need to stop. This can't go on. No Israeli government can tolerate that," she said. But the Israelis "need to be aware of the effects of these operations on innocent people."
Livni told the diplomats that Abbas' decision to halt the negotiations "shows weakness," signaling to Hamas that its attacks from Gaza could influence Abbas' actions.
Behind the scenes, however, both sides showed some readiness to stand down.
Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar told reporters his group has been in touch with an unidentified third party to discuss a cease-fire that would include the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and an end to an Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Israeli leaders have been reluctant to seek a cease-fire, claiming Hamas would use any lull to rearm. But a growing number of Israelis say the government should consider the idea.
The daily Haaretz, for example, called for talks with the militant group in an editorial published Tuesday.
"Power has limitations. The Israel Defense Forces cannot solve everything," it said. "So there is no escape but to talk to Hamas. We cannot choose our enemies. We embraced Yasser Arafat after saying for dozens of years (in the words of Yitzhak Rabin) that 'We'll meet the PLO only on the battlefield.'"
___
AP correspondent Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this article from Gaza City.
