Olmert vows to pursue "war" against Gaza militants

By Avida Landau

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Thursday to wage a "war" to stop Gaza militants firing rockets into Israel, despite warnings by Palestinian leaders that Israeli military strikes would harm peacemaking.

In the latest bloodshed in a surge of violence that began after U.S. President George W. Bush ended a visit last week to spur talks on Palestinian statehood, an Israeli air strike on a car in the Gaza Strip killed a militant and his wife.

Militants in the Hamas-controlled territory have fired some 70 rockets at southern Israel in the past two days.

"A war is going on in the south, every day, every night," Olmert said in a speech.

"We cannot and will not tolerate this unceasing fire at Israeli citizens ... so we will continue to operate, with wisdom and daring, with the maximum precision that will enable us to hit those who want to attack us," Olmert said, minutes after the air strike.

"The most daring and boldest of our soldiers and members of the security services are taking part ... This war will not stop," the prime minister said, predicting Israeli military pressure would "tip the scales" and force a halt to rocket fire.

Olmert, saying Israel wanted to avoid harming Palestinian civilians, gave no indication he might order a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip, an assault Israeli officials have cautioned could cause heavy casualties on both sides.

The administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the Israeli operations in Gaza and arrests of militants in the occupied West Bank as "a slap in the face" to efforts by Bush to achieve a peace treaty by year's end.

Olmert said he remained committed to moving forward in peace talks "without hesitation". But he was vague on a timeframe for a full treaty, saying he hoped within a year to negotiate "understandings" with the Palestinian Authority that would lead to a final agreement.

MILITANT LEADER

Thursday's air strike, in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, set a car ablaze, killing the two people inside. They were identified by Hamas as Raed Abu al-Foul, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, and his wife.

Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, including three members of a Gaza family in a botched air attack on Wednesday.

Eighteen Palestinians, most of them militants, were killed in Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and an Ecuadorean volunteer on an Israel kibbutz bordering the territory was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper.

"It is too late for the enemy to try to stop our rockets, we have hundreds of rockets and they are ready to be fired at the Zionist settlements near Gaza Strip," a PRC spokesman said after the Israeli air strike on Thursday.

"One martyr goes to heaven and thousands rise to fire more rockets and to fight the Zionist entity," the spokesman said.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Janet Lawrence)