Rice to attempt to salvage peace talks between Israel, Palestinians

JERUSALEM – Israeli aircraft sent missiles crashing into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, pressing an offensive against Palestinian rocket squads even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region to try to rescue peace talks amid the latest outbreak of violence.\nRice hoped in a meeting later Tuesday to persuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to negotiations he cut off Sunday after more than 120 Gazans were killed in an Israeli operation against militants who bombard southern Israel with rocket and mortar fire.\nAlthough Abbas has had little power over the coastal area of 1.4 million people since Hamas seized control in June, the high death toll, which included dozens of civilians, made it difficult for him to continue the talks.\nFighting escalated sharply last week after Israel mounted an onslaught in northern Gaza to retaliate for Palestinian rocket fire that reached closer to Israel’s heartland than ever before. Israel pulled out its ground forces on Monday, but has continued air assaults against persistent Palestinian attacks.\nOn Tuesday, militants hit a house in the rocket-weary town of Sderot, causing no injuries but extensive damage. Another landed in an open area.\nIsraeli forces responded by launching several air and ground strikes on rocket squads and Hamas installations Tuesday, killing one militant and wounding another, 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.\nThe violence transformed Rice’s scheduled mission from nudging the sides toward progress in peace talks to rescuing the U.S.-sponsored negotiations from collapse.\nRice called for the resumption of peace talks “as soon as possible,” saying they were necessary to counter Hamas’ influence.\n“There has to be an active peace process that can withstand the efforts of rejectionists to keep peace from being made, the people who are firing rockets do not want peace,” Rice told reporters in Cairo before she headed to Israel and the West Bank. “They sow instability, that is what Hamas is doing.”\nRice backed Israel’s right to respond to the rocket fire, but said it must avoid causing civilian casualties.\n“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 those operations on innocent people.”\nThe 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.\nIn Belgium on Monday, on her way to the Middle East, Rice called for a resumption of negotiations.\n“I’m hopeful that we can get through this current situation and get back to negotiations,” she said.\nThe Israeli ground offensive during the weekend that caused significant damage in northern Gaza was a limited operation by a relatively small Israeli force – a hint of the massive destruction that could result from a full-scale invasion. While Israel is reluctant to get entangled in a broad operation, it has repeatedly warned of an approaching invasion, and public pressure to take harsher action has intensified.\nOlmert insisted Israel would not stop its offensives.\n“If there is terror from Gaza, we will hit back with all our might, whether or not there are negotiations in progress,” Olmert said.\nBut Olmert said Israel must press forward with peace talks with moderate Palestinians, relaunched after a seven-year breakdown at a U.S.-hosted conference in November.\n“We want to carry on with negotiations because the alternative is Hamas rule in the West Bank as well. Anyone who sees what is going on in Gaza can well imagine how much worse it would be for Israel if there were to be Hamas rule in the West Bank,” he said.\nThe West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory, lies close to Israel’s Tel Aviv center.\nPalestinian officials said Abbas intended to complain about the Gaza incursion to Rice when he meets her at his West Bank headquarters.