Middle East peace talks off toa rocky start

The first formal peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in seven years got off to a rocky start today.

The Palestinians attacked Israel over a new building project in disputed east Jerusalem and Israel accused the Palestinians of creating a “tense atmosphere”.

The Palestinians claimed the planned construction in the Har Homa area, along with Israeli military activity in the Gaza Strip, have threatened to undermine the new peace talks.

Today’s meeting was the first formal negotiating session since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas relaunched the peace process at last month’s conference in Annapolis. The last peace talks broke down in violence in January 2001.

At the gathering, the two leaders set an ambitious target of December 2008 for concluding a peace agreement that would end six decades of conflict.

The troubles at today’s meeting, which lasted just 90 minutes at a Jerusalem hotel, showed just how far the sides have to go.

Initially scheduled to kick off with a ceremonial launch at the ornate King David hotel, the talks were held secretly at another hotel in the city.

Conflicting claims to Jerusalem are just one of the issues they will have to resolve in the coming year.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War, as the capital of a future independent state. Israel considers all of the city its capital, though Mr Olmert has signalled he would be willing to relinquish outlying Arab areas.

Other core issues include the final borders of a Palestinian state, the future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees whose families lost properties during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.

The Hamas militant group’s violent seizure of the Gaza Strip last June has further complicated matters. Abbas’ lack of control over Gaza has raised questions about his ability to carry out any future peace deal.

An Israeli official confirmed the Palestinians complained today about Har Homa, Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and Israeli military activity in Gaza.

“We really wanted to see it as a procedural meeting in good spirit ... They created a tense atmosphere,” the official said.

The official said Israel complained about continuing Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Earlier today, Palestinian militants fired 16 home-made rockets toward Israel, causing minor damage and lightly wounding one woman.

The barrage came hours after Israeli forces ended a broad incursion into the coastal strip that killed six militants and left a wide swath of damage in its wake.

Israel is pursuing peace with Mr Abbas’ moderate government in the West Bank. At the same time, it continues to battle the Hamas militant group, which has ruled Gaza since defeating Abbas’ forces last June.

Israel regularly carries out brief ground incursions and airstrikes in Gaza in a bid to stop Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israeli towns.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said it fired nine of the rockets to avenge Israel’s incursion. “The resistance is going to escalate the operations targeting the Zionist colonies in the coming hours,” said Abu Ahmad, a spokesman for the group.