Olmert: Israel will press ahead with strikes in Gaza

Israel will keep targeting Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza despite the risk of inadvertently hitting civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

He spoke yesterday as tens of thousands of Palestinians buried 18 victims of an errant Israeli artillery strike.

Olmert said the artillery was meant to hit an orange grove from which troops saw rockets fired seconds earlier, but instead hit homes in Beit Hanoun, some 500 metres away.

The military said the results of its inquiry concluded that “the Palestinian civilian casualties were caused by IDF (Israeli army) artillery”.

The military statement said the inquiry determined the problem was a “technical failure” in the system that directs the fire. It said the army commander ordered a halt to artillery fire at Gaza until a further check is completed.

Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered the military to ”re-evaluate its policy of artillery fire in Gaza, including the safety range”, his ministry said in a statement.

All of the dead belonged to a single extended family.

Amid the anguish, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas picked up the phone and called his main political rival, Hamas’ supreme leader Khaled Mashaal - a move that could help prevent the Islamic militant group from renewing attacks on Israel and also pave the way for a moderate Palestinian government.

Abbas and Mashaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, Syria, agreed to meet after agreement has been reached on a new government of experts, to be appointed by Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah movement, said a senior Palestinian official who sat in on the conversation.

Both sides hope that such a government will be acceptable to the West and end a crippling international aid boycott.

Abbas had refused to talk to Mashaal since April, when the Hamas leader harshly criticised the Palestinian president in a speech.

However, with violence threatening to escalate further after the Beit Hanoun strike and militants calling for revenge, he contacted Mashaal to try to lock up a coalition deal.

A key sticking point is the choice of a new prime minister who has ties to Hamas, but would also be acceptable to the West.

In Jerusalem, Olmert said that while he regrets the latest deaths, Israel will press ahead with strikes against Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli border towns.

“The military will continue as long as there will be Qassam shooting,” he said, using the name for Hamas’ home-made rockets. “We are not going to stop.”

“We will take precautions in order to avoid unnecessary mistakes,” he said.

“We will do everything in our power to avoid it. I think it would not be serious to promise that it may not happen. It may happen.”

Beit Hanoun has been the focus of a week-long Israeli offensive meant to halt rocket the attacks.

The shelling came a day after Israeli ground forces pulled out of Beit Hanoun.

The shells landed as residents were still asleep, and witnesses said many were killed as they fled their homes in panic.

The 18 dead was the highest Palestinian civilian toll in a single incident since the current conflict erupted in September 2000.

The highest toll of Israeli civilians was 29 killed in a Palestinian suicide bombing at a Passover gathering in March 2002.

For yesterday’s funeral, the bodies arrived at the cemetery in a convoy of 18 ambulances which drove from the local hospital through the artillery-scarred cluster of apartment buildings. Cries of “God is greater than Israel and America,” punctuated by gunshots, rang out as the bodies were brought out on stretchers.

“I will avenge, I will avenge!” screamed one of the victims’ relatives as he fired his weapon, voicing a common sentiment among the mourners.

“The Zionist enemy understands only the language of force and therefore I say, ’an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose,”’ chanted Abdel al-Hakim Awad, a Fatah spokesman.

“The residents of Sderot, the residents of Ashkelon, even the residents of Tel Aviv, are not going to enjoy security or peace as long as you are suffering, our beloved people in Beit Hanoun.”

The freshly dug graves were lined up in a single row, each marked by a concrete block. A Palestinian flag fluttered over each one.

Two Israeli unmanned aircraft buzzed overhead.

All of the dead belonged to the al-Athamnas, a prominent family in town that includes several doctors and professionals. Family members said they had fled during the recent Israeli offensive, returning home after Tuesday’s pullout.