RAMALLAH: US envoy George Mitchell called for a durable truce in Gaza on Thursday as spiraling violence threatened to shatter ceasefires that ended a devastating war in the Hamas-run enclave.
It is important to consolidate a sustainable and durable ceasefire and encourage efforts in that regard, Mitchell told reporters after holding talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah as he continued his maiden tour of the region.
The 75-year-old former US senator, who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland in 1998, vowed that President Barack Obama s administration would keep up efforts to achieve peace in the region.
Lasting peace is our objective and the United States will sustain an active commitment to two states living side by side in peace, stability and security, he said.
Mitchell called for the opening of Gaza s borders – sealed by Israel to all but basic humanitarian goods since Hamas violently seized power in June 2007 – and said that Abbas s Palestinian Authority had to be part of the efforts.
To be successful in preventing illicit trafficking of arms into Gaza there must be a mechanism to allow the flow of legal goods and that should be with the participation of the Palestinian Authority, he said.
Abbas did not speak following the meeting.
In Gaza, violence continued to spiral on Thursday with 18 Palestinians, including 11 schoolchildren and a pregnant woman, wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting a Hamas policeman in the southern town of Khan Yunis, medics said. The Hamas man was also wounded in the attack.
The Israeli army said the Hamas man was a member of a squad behind a bombing on Tuesday that killed an Israeli soldier, giving rise to renewed tensions after 10 days of calm that followed Israel s 22-day war on the impoverished Palestinian territory.
An Israeli warplane bombed Thursday an area of the Gaza Strip border known to contain smuggling tunnels to Egypt after Palestinian militants fired a missile, the Israeli military said.
An aerial attack took place against a site used to manufacture weapons in an area of the city of Rafah following the firing of a rocket into southern Israel in the evening, an Israeli army spokesman told AFP.
Witnesses said the attack took place in eastern Rafah, an area known to contain smuggling tunnels, and that no one was injured.
Earlier the Israeli military said the missile was fired from the Gaza Strip towards the town of Ofakim, which fell in an unpopulated area. The rocket attack was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas s Fatah faction.
Later the Israeli military said that early Thursday a second missile was fired into southern Israel, but caused no damage or injuries.
Israeli officials, in the midst of campaigning for the Feb. 10 legislative poll, vowed that they would hit back hard at any strike and warned that Gaza s borders would remain closed if attacks continued.
It is clear that we will react, but we need patience and we have no intentions of showing our plans to the enemy, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told army radio.
Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel would not open Gaza s border crossings and allow construction materials to enter the enclave to begin rebuilding efforts if rocketing continued.
To start such works, you need cement, pipes, all sorts of construction materials. If Hamas leaders want to leave this area in the state that it s in right now, they will have to answer to the residents.
Israel launched a massive air and ground offensive against Hamas on Dec. 27 in response to rocket fire. More than 1,300 people died and large swathes of the impoverished territory were left in ruins.
On the Israeli side three civilians and 10 soldiers were killed.
Speaking after his meeting with Olmert on Wednesday, Mitchell said it was critical to consolidate the Gaza ceasefire.
The prime minister and I discussed the critical importance to consolidate the ceasefire, including a cessation of hostilities, an end to smuggling and re-opening of the crossings based on 2005 agreements, he said.
He was referring to agreements under which Gaza s Rafah crossing with Egypt, the sole border that bypasses Israel, was to be operated by Egyptian and Palestinian Authority forces, along with European Union observers and Israeli monitoring via live cameras.
Olmert, however, said Israel would open Gaza s borders only if Hamas members released a soldier they snatched in June 2006.
A permanent opening of the crossings will be linked to solving the issue of Gilad Shalit, a senior Israeli official quoted Olmert as telling the envoy.
