US Middle East envoy George Mitchell called today for an opening of trade crossings into the Gaza Strip with the involvement of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Following talks in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is at odds with Gaza's ruling Islamist movement Hamas, Mitchell told reporters: "To be successful in preventing the illicit traffic of arms into Gaza there must be a mechanism to allow the flow of legal goods, and that should be with the participation of the Palestinian Authority."
Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the coastal enclave, saying it needs to prevent Hamas acquiring arms.
Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes threaten to undermine efforts by Mr Mitchell to reinforce the fragile Gaza ceasefire.
Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip launched one rocket into Israel late on yesterday - the first since the ceasefire - and another on Thursday. No one was hurt.
Israeli aircraft then struck in the southern Gaza Strip, attacking a metal workshop that the military called a weapons factory, causing no casualties, and a motorcycle, wounding two militants and 10 youths passing by, medical workers said.
The surge of violence over the past two days threatened to rekindle a war that Israel launched on Dec. 27 with the declared aim of ending cross-border rocket fire.
Mr Mitchell, repeating Mr Obama's call for a return to peace talks, said it was "of critical importance that the Gaza ceasefire be extended and consolidated".
"It is a new government in its start we heard that their slogan is 'change' therefore we are hopeful that there will be a full review by the President and his administration regarding the Middle East and specifically the Palestinian case".
But with an election approaching on Feb. 10, Israeli leaders have been talking tough on security, a main voter concern.
They have pledged a forceful response to an explosion that killed an Israeli soldier on the Gaza border on Tuesday and to the rockets. Palestinian militants said the rockets were in retaliation for Israel's killing of three Palestinians since the truce began.
Agencies