Region | Palestinian Territories
Israeli Foreign Minister Livni in Cairo for talks on Gaza
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni travelled to Cairo on Thursday to discuss escalating violence along the Israel-Gaza border and the prospects of renewing an Egyptian-brokered truce that ended last week.
- Agencies
- Published: 11:54 December 25, 2008
Cairo: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni travelled to Cairo on Thursday to discuss escalating violence along the Israel-Gaza border and the prospects of renewing an Egyptian-brokered truce that ended last week.
Livni met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak one day after Palestinian militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired more than 80 rockets and mortars at southern Israel and an Israeli air strike killed a Hamas gunman.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit urged Israelis and Palestinians to exercise restraint to facilitate a new ceasefire between the Jewish state and Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers.
"Egypt will not stop efforts (to broker a truce) as long as the parties want this, but I cannot imagine that we can convince the two sides to go back to the calm as long as there is this escalation," Aboul Gheit told reporters at a press conference with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.
He added: "What we are asking them both is to restrain themselves, and then we see how to come back to that period of quiet."
Livni described the latest escalation as "unbearable".
"Hamas needs to understand that our aspiration to live in peace does not mean that Israel will take this kind of situation any longer. Enough is enough," Livni told reporters in Cairo.
"We cannot tolerate a situation in which Hamas continues to target Israel, Israel's citizens, and this situation is going to be changed," Livni added.
Livni said on Wednesday that Israel will "change the reality" of the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Do you think the remarks will worsen the Gaza situation? Will this increase the likelihood of a military solution?
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