Israeli violence could harm peace talks-Abbas

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 22 (Reuters) Israel's stepped-up campaign against Palestinian militants in recent days could jeopardise Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said today.

Israeli troops have killed 13 Palestinians, most of them militants, in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and another in the occupied West Bank since Monday in one of the bloodiest weeks in the region since Hamas seized the territory in June.

''This escalation throws plenty of doubt about Israel's real intentions towards the peace process,'' Abbas said in a statement.

Abbas described the killing of the 13 as ''a massacre which cannot be justified in any circumstances''.

Earlier today an Israeli missile fired from an aircraft killed a Hamas militant in the central Gaza Strip near the border fence with Israel, the Islamist group and local residents said.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that an aerial attack targeted a group of Palestinian militants in the border area.

Yesterday, Israeli missiles killed three Palestinian militants and two young boys. Six Hamas militants were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Monday.

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