Olmert tells Abbas he regrets Gaza civilian deaths

By Staff
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JERUSALEM, June 22 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today he felt ''regret'' over 14 bystanders killed in recent Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source said.

But Olmert, in his first, informal face-to-face meeting with Abbas at a conference in Jordan, stopped short of apologising for civilian deaths that have drawn international censure of Israel's response to rocket salvoes from militants in Gaza.

''I feel a deep regret over the death of innocents, but there is no moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel and Israeli army operations, because the army does not intend to hurt innocents,'' a source in Olmert's office quoted him as telling Abbas on the sidelines of the talks in Petra.

Five Israeli air strikes over the past two weeks have killed 7 militants and 14 bystanders, many of them children. Israel has defended the tactic as the only means of stemming rocket fire from Gaza, which it quit last year after 38 years of occupation.

Abbas, who last week condemned one air strike as ''state terrorism'' by Israel, had more conciliatory words upon his return from the meeting with Olmert.

''We say that such attacks only bring the two people apart,'' he told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. ''They do not serve the peace process and we hope for quiet and calm so we can return to the negotiating table.'' But with Palestinian militants vowing revenge, questions have been raised in Israel and abroad as to the efficacy of the air strikes, prompting the military top brass to order a review.

Israel's air force chief, Major-General Eliezer Shkedy, said he had required more stringent safeguards against missiles being launched where bystanders might be harmed. But he said the air strikes would continue, despite the risk of civilian casualties.

''This is, essentially, the main and almost only way of waging combat in Gaza at this time,'' Shkedy told Army Radio.

''The other option is a ground operation and we are trying to avoid this as much as possible.'' Shkedy said there has been a fivefold increase in air strikes since Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza, increasing the probability of operational accidents.

He also accused Palestinian militants of inviting civilian casualties by firing rockets from within populated areas. The crude homemade missiles have caused few casualties but have put residents in southern Israeli towns on edge.

REUTERS PR RK1750

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