The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, defended missile strikes on the Gaza Strip yesterday, which killed a Palestinian naval doctor and injured 18 other people. Speaking in Ankara, he described the Israeli strikes as a response to the mortar shelling of Jewish settlements in the Strip by the Palestinians.
"It's not a declaration of war. It's a declaration against terror," he told a press conference in the Turkish capital.
Mr Peres was in Ankara to discuss a number of issues including Israel's plans to purchase drinking water from the Turks. The two regional allies have been negotiating for some time to sign a contract for Israel to buy water from the Manavgat river, which flows to the Mediterranean near the southern Turkish port of Antalya.
Mr Peres, the first member of Mr Ariel Sharon's government to visit Turkey, is scheduled to leave Ankara today.
He described the Israeli strikes as defensive. "The message is . . . please stop shelling," he said.
Mr Peres, a Nobel peace laureate in 1994 for his efforts to end the Israeli-Arab conflict, rejected Palestinian Authority accusations that Israel had declared war with its latest raids. "The peace process is not dying. It remains alive," he said. "Only negotiations can solve the problems. Once terror subsides, we will return to the peace talks."
Meanwhile, senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials will meet on Wednesday to renew attempts to put an end to six months of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said on Tuesday.
The official said the meeting would be boycotted by Palestinian preventive security chief in the Gaza Strip, Mr Mohammad Dahlan, after last week's incident in which Israeli soldiers shot at his car and wounded two of his bodyguards. They were returning to Gaza from a US-arranged security meeting.
Mr Peres, who started his two-day visit to Turkey yesterday, met his Turkish counterpart, Mr Ismail Cem, the Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer during the day.
Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since 1996 when the two signed a military co-operation accord, much to the anger of most Arab countries and Iran. But Turkey also backs Palestinians' demand for statehood and maintains full diplomatic relations with them.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, said Israel would strike without warning against Palestinians deemed to be involved in the "flagrant escalation" of violence.
"We are not going to announce every time we are going to respond, neither are we going to say what will be the response," Mr Raanan Gissin said. "But you can rest assured that to this kind of flagrant escalation in the shooting and fighting we will find the proper response to stop it and there will be no immunity."
Mr Gissin said Palestinians had fired over 50 mortar bombs against Israeli targets over the past several days and insisted that Israel would hit back at those responsible.
"Those who fire them will be punished and those who aid and abet them and those who allow the use of areas under their control to launch their fire, will also bear the full responsibility."
Mr Gissin said the Palestinian targets hit by Israel were frequent sources of anti-Israel mortar fire, adding that Israeli retaliatory attacks were intended to force Palestinians to resume security ties with Israel.
"We hope very much that as a result of this response, the Palestinian Authority will realise that they are moving toward a dead end. The only resolution is to renew the security co-ordination," Mr Gissin said.
The six-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israel's 34year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has developed into an escalating cycle of strike and counter-strike, with each side accusing the other of responsibility.
Israeli military radio also announced yesterday that a former Israeli justice minister, Mr Yossi Beilin, and the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, would meet today.
On April 4th, a Labour deputy, Ms Colette Avital, and the two Meretz parliamentary deputies Ms Zehava Galon and Ms Naomi Hazan, met Mr Arafat to discuss means of putting an end to the violence and resuming negotiations. Two days earlier, a Labour MP, Mr Yossi Katz, had also met the Palestinian leader in Ramallah and suggested a two-week ceasefire.
Mr Beilin and Mr Mahmud Abbas, alias Abu Mazen, the secretary general of the PLO executive committee, both contributed to the drafting of the 1993 Oslo accords, granting the Palestinians limited autonomy.