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| By Associated Press February 5, 2007 |
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Israeli Deputy Premier Shimon Peres on Sunday said Israel must not intervene in the internal Palestinian fighting in the Gaza Strip, saying that to do so would risk uniting the feuding Palestinians against it.
Since Thursday, 28 Palestinians have died in Gaza fighting between the militant Islamic Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah. Some Israeli officials, concerned that the conflict could boil over into a fresh spate of attacks on Israel, advocate a major ground offensive to strike the militants first.
"We need to leave Gaza to the Gazans," Peres told Israeli Army Radio. "Our intervention will not help, on the contrary, it will draw all the fire toward Israel. We need to leave the Gazans to deal with it and hope that it settles itself."
The Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday said the military and the Shin Bet intelligence agency were concerned that Hamas accusations that Israel is backing Fatah could provoke new attempts to carry out suicide bombings or other attacks on Israel.
While Israel maintains contacts with Abbas and describes him as a partner for peace efforts, it regularly arrests members of militant groups linked to Fatah and is seeking, publicly at least, to stay at arm's length from the current round of infighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that Israel was not involved in violence in Gaza, according to a participant in the meeting.
"We have no hand, no involvement in the Palestinian fighting. It is an internal matter about which we are not happy," he said, according to the participant.
Haaretz cited "top military sources" as saying that while no Israeli assault was imminent, an operation on the scale of the Defensive Shield offensive of 2002, in which Israel reoccupied West Bank towns after a series of suicide bombings could become necessary in Gaza.
"How close is Israel to getting sucked into the Gazan vortex? Closer than one might think," the paper wrote in a front-page analysis, saying that the chief opponent of a major ground operation had been outgoing armed forces chief Dan Halutz.
The position of his replacement, former infantry general Gabi Ashkenazi, was not known, the paper said.
However, military officials said there was a consensus among staff officers that Israeli forces should not get involved in Palestinian civil strife and should not enter Gaza at a time of such high tension and violence. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. |
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