Canada said yesterday Israel must stop launching raids into Palestinian-run areas of the Gaza Strip and should instead focus on how to rebuild peace in the Middle East.
Foreign Minister John Manley was speaking to Reuters hours after Israeli forces again entered the strip to fight local police following a Palestinian mortar bomb attack on a Jewish settlement. Hours earlier, Israel left Palestinian-ruled land in Gaza that it had reoccupied for less than 24 hours.

"They can't continue to respond with the level of military engagement they have been (using) because it's just making the situation worse," Manley told Reuters in a 30-minute interview. "Our request to them is that they refrain from incursions into Palestinian territory as well as expanding any of the illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories." Manley also said the Palestinians bore some responsibility for the recent surge in violence, saying they had to be aware that Israel would respond if mortar rounds were launched at Jewish settlements from Palestinian-run territory.

"Both sides have to stop and until they do, there are going to be continuing casualties on both sides and there will be no chance for peace to begin to take hold. That will require a series of very small, very incremental steps that will rebuild some confidence and trust. We're far from that at the present time," he said. Britain and France yesterday both said Israeli troops should stay out of Palestinian-run territory. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday said the raids were excessive.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took power last month vowing to restore security to the country. Over the past week, Israel has also bombed southern Lebanon and fired missiles into Palestinian areas. "There seems to be an inclination on the part of the new government to make a very firm statement and one would hope that having done that...it might be time now for them to begin to look for opportunities for the rebuilding of some trust and confidence," Manley said.

The minister said that despite the increasing violence, he still intended to go ahead with a trip to the Middle East in the first half of next month to see how Canada could help restore peace to the region. "Unless I'm advised that it's really a bad time to go, that's my expectation," he said.
At least 381 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 71 other Israelis have died since a Palestinian uprising began in September after the breakdown of peace talks.

Manley said in February it was overly pessimistic to assume the election of Sharon would automatically lead to the collapse of the Middle East peace process and intensified conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. He said yesterday that Canada's main concern was to try to encourage both sides to defuse tensions and thereby restore some sense of calm. "It's not easy to allocate blame in a situation as complicated as the one which exists in the Middle East because there's plenty of blame to go around on everybody's shoulders," he said.