Israel bombs Gaza tunnels

Dubai: US President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel on Wednesday amid fresh fighting between Israel and Hamas throwing into turmoil the fragile 10-day-old ceasefire.

Israeli warplanes bombed tunnels linking Gaza and Egypt, which Israel says are used to smuggle weapons. The attack came in response to the killing of an Israeli soldier in which three others were also wounded. A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire shortly afterwards and a Hamas fighter and two other Palestinians wounded in an air strike, also in southern Gaza.

The renewal of fighting was described as the most serious violence since Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on January 18.

"The Israeli escalation, aims to tell Mitchell that he is not welcome and he has to come according to Israeli standards and not according to a new American vision which tries to be balanced," Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamadan said.

Speaking to Gulf News, Hamadan said the Israeli soldier was killed on Monday during an Israeli infiltration operation inside Gaza.

"The Israelis don't want any side, even if they are the Americans, to tell them they are wrong," Hamadan said.

Meanwhile, George Mitchell, the newly-appointed US envoy for the Middle East arrived in Israel, the second leg of his first regional tour, which includes Palestinian territories, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He has already visited Egypt.

"It is of critical importance that the ceasefire be extended and consolidated. We support Egypt's continuing efforts in that regard," he said after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the first leg of a Middle East tour.

Mitchell, instructed by President Barack Obama to "engage vigorously" to achieve real progress in the region, discussed Egypt's efforts to bring peace to Gaza with Mubarak.

He thanked Egypt for its efforts to bring about a ceasefire and said the United States is "committed to vigorously pursuing lasting peace and stability in the region."

"The decision by Obama to dispatch me to come to this region less than a week after his inauguration is clear and tangible evidence of this commitment," Mitchell said before leaving for Israel.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP, "Israel wants the calm in the south to continue, but yesterday's deadly attack from Gaza was an attempt to deliberately undermine the calm."

Egypt has been holding separate talks with Israeli and Hamas officials.

Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al Gaith said the talks have "evolved positively," and a "permanent" truce could be agreed in the first week of February.

He said such a ceasefire would lead to the reopening of Gaza border posts which Hamas has been insisting upon.

Israel, on the other hand, said it will not do so unless Hamas frees a soldier seized by fighters in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

Meanwhile, Jamil Yousuf from the Islamic Jihad said Egypt's truce proposal conditioned reopening Gaza's borders completely on freeing the soldier Gilad Shalit, Egypt's Al Ahram newspaper reported yesterday. However, Hamas insists that the two issues are separate.