Seven Palestinians die in Gaza as Olmert vows "war"

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli air strikes killed at least seven Palestinians, including a mother and child, in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to wage a "war" to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

The escalation in violence prompted Palestinian leaders to warn that renewed peace talks -- spurred by last week's visit by U.S. President George W. Bush -- were at stake.

The latest in a series of air strikes killed two Hamas militants and wounded three others, Hamas said.

A prior Israeli air strike on a car in the Gaza Strip killed at least one Islamic Jihad militant, as well as a mother and child riding in a donkey cart, Palestinian hospital officials said. A third air strike killed a militant leader and his wife.

Militants in the Hamas-controlled territory have fired close to 100 rockets at southern Israel in the past two days following the killing of 18 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, in some of the heaviest fighting in months in the Gaza Strip.

"A war is going on in the south, every day, every night," Olmert said in a speech in Tel Aviv. "We cannot and will not tolerate this unceasing fire at Israeli citizens ... so we will continue to operate."

"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 sought 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 arrest 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.

Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) issued a terse statement condemning Israeli military actions in Gaza and warning of "serious consequences" for the peace talks.

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

The latest attack on Thursday hit a Hamas military outpost in Gaza City killing two gunmen, the Islamist group said.

The two other air strikes targeted cars in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

One of the air strikes killed Raed Abu al-Foul, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and his wife. An army spokesman said the strike hit a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad operatives involved in manufacturing rockets.