ISRAEL:Over 70 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded in Gaza over the weekend as Israel launched a deadly assault in the coastal strip that targeted Palestinian militants, who continued to pepper southern Israel with dozens of rockets.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the operation. At least half the dead were militants, but more than 20 civilians were killed as the Israeli operation, which began after midnight on Friday, targeted the populated Jabalya refugee camp from where many of the rockets have been fired.
The incursion began after militants last week fired longer-range, Iranian-designed Grad rockets at Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people some 10km north of Gaza.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, under pressure to respond to the Israeli assault in Gaza, yesterday announced a halt to all contacts with Israel.
"The negotiations are suspended, as are all contacts on all levels, because in light of the Israeli aggression such communication has no meaning," read a statement released by Mr Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
Israel and the Palestinians agreed to renew negotiations at a US-led summit in November last year, but the latest violent escalation in Gaza looks set to derail them.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday that if militants thought that Israel would cease its military operations in Gaza because they were striking deeper inside Israel with their rockets, then they were making a "grave mistake".
"It must be clear that Israel has no intention to stop for one moment the fight against terror organisations," Mr Olmert said.
But Israeli observers said the operation over the weekend in Gaza was just a precursor to what they believed would be a much broader military incursion if militants kept targeting Ashkelon.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, large numbers of Israeli troops, backed by armoured vehicles, moved on militant strongholds in the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalya.
Some of the civilians who died in the fighting were killed by Israeli fire as they sheltered in their homes.
Israeli aircraft attacked positions where Hamas had deployed rocket launchers, sometimes dropping one-ton bombs. Israel also targeted the Gaza City building that houses the office of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister.
Mr Haniyeh was not there at the time of the attack; he and other Palestinian leaders are in hiding for fear that Israel might try to assassinate them.
While he denounced the rocket attacks on Israel, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon condemned Israel for what he termed "the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children".
The EU also condemned Israel, with EU president Slovenia criticising Israel for a "disproportionate use of force".
But Mr Olmert rebuffed the criticism, saying Israel was acting in self-defence.
"We must remember that Israel is protecting its citizens in the south of the country and that with all due respect, nothing will prevent us from this duty," Mr Olmert said.
"No one has the moral right to preach to Israel for exercising its right to self-defence."
The latest escalation in violence comes just days before US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to visit the region in a bid to bolster the faltering peace talks.
It is difficult to find an Israeli or Palestinian, however, who believes that there is any chance the sides will reach an agreement by the end of the year - the goal set at the Annapolis conference in November.
There has been no progress since the talks were renewed three months ago, with Israeli officials saying that Mr Abbas is too weak to seal a deal and Palestinian leaders accusing Israel of undermining the talks by continuing to build in West Bank settlements.
According to an AFP tally, some 300 Palestinians - most of them militants - have been killed since peace talks were relaunched three months ago.