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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. To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
