Israeli Threats Signal Possible Escalation

By RAVI NESSMAN

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stepped up pressure on Palestinians Sunday, telling his military to “do all it can” to free an abducted soldier and hinting Israel might arrest more Hamas leaders.

Coming just hours after an Israeli airstrike blasted offices of the Palestinian prime minister, Olmert’s threat signaled the government was losing patience with diplomatic efforts to end the crisis and preparing for a possible escalation of its military offensive.

An official with Egypt’s government, which was trying to mediate a settlement, warned that time was running out.

Aircraft, gunboats and artillery have pounded the Gaza Strip since Israeli soldiers and tanks took up positions in southern Gaza on Wednesday trying to pressure Palestinians to free Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Five Palestinian fighters had been reported killed, including four Sunday.

Hamas-affiliated militants holding Shalit have offered to give Israel information about him in exchange for the release of hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails, a deal Israel rejects.

“These are difficult days for Israel, but we have no intention of giving in to any form of blackmailing,” Olmert said Sunday. “Everyone understands that giving in to terror today means an invitation to the next act of terrorism, and we will not act that way.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Olmert on Sunday to discuss the situation, Olmert’s office said in a statement. He told Rice that Israel would use all means at its disposal to get Shalit released and said there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel reopened a cargo crossing into Gaza to allow shipments of food and fuel into the territory. Palestinian officials had warned Saturday that a shortage of fuel threatened to shut down generators used to pump water and power hospitals.

Olmert told his Cabinet he had instructed the military to “do all it can” to get Shalit back safely, but added that the offensive would end immediately if he was released, according to a meeting participant, who agreed to tell about the discussions only if not quoted by name.

Last week, Israel arrested eight Cabinet ministers in the Hamas-led Palestinian administration and dozens of other top Hamas leaders in the West Bank.

Olmert told the Cabinet such arrests could spread. Hamas’ power base is in Gaza, where many of its top leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, live.

“I don’t promise that the arrests of senior Hamas officials will be limited to Judea and Samaria,” Olmert said, according to the meeting participant, using the biblical names for the West Bank. “Wherever there is a proven terror infrastructure, there will be arrests. There will be immunity for no one.”

Egypt has been working to broker a compromise to free the soldier and end the standoff, but negotiations were complicated by confusion over who was in charge of Shalit’s fate.

The Palestinian government, led by the Islamic militants of Hamas since January elections, said it had no contact with the kidnappers. Israel assumes Shalit’s captors answer to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who lives in Syria, but the group’s foreign leadership denied having any authority over the matter.

“We have no contact with those holding the prisoner,” said Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas leader based in Lebanon.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was trying to enlist Syrian President Bashar Assad’s help to persuade Hamas leaders to free Shalit, while Egypt’s intelligence chief was talking with Mashaal directly, an Egyptian official said.

The efforts were continuing, “but time is not on the Palestinians’ side,” said the official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if quoted anonymously because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Raising the stakes, Israeli aircraft launched two missiles into the Palestinian prime minister’s empty office building early Sunday, damaging offices and leaving parts of the building smoldering.

“This is unacceptable,” Haniyeh said. “This will not break the will of the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a rival of Haniyeh’s from the moderate Fatah Party, surveyed the damage with Haniyeh and called the attack “a dirty, criminal act.”

The strike, which came a day after Israel destroyed the interior minister’s office, was a clear signal no one was immune.

“I remain very concerned about the need to preserve Palestinian institutions and infrastructure,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sunday. “They will be the basis for an eventual two-state solution and are thus in the interests of both Israel and the Palestinians. It would therefore seem inadvisable to carry out actions that will have the opposite effect.”

Hamas militants said they would retaliate if Israel continued attacking Palestinian institutions. Hamas is responsible for dozens of deadly suicide bombings in Israel.

An airstrike Sunday hit a school in Gaza City and Hamas facilities in northern Gaza, where a Hamas militant became the second Palestinian fatality since the offensive started, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military said the militant was “planning terror attacks against Israel.”

Israeli troops later killed three armed Palestinians, two of whom were carrying explosives belts, near the long-closed airport, the military said.

In other violence, Israeli artillery pounded open areas near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and Palestinians fired several homemade rockets and mortar shells at Israel, the military said. No casualties were reported.

“I take personal responsibility for what is happening in Gaza. I want nobody to sleep at night in Gaza. I want them to know what its like,” Olmert told the Cabinet. “People are saying it’s uncomfortable. It will be uncomfortable, (but) nobody dies from being uncomfortable.”

Israel reopened the main cargo crossing with Gaza to allow 50 trucks of food, medical supplies and fuel in from Israel, Israeli officials said. Trucks carrying diesel fuel, gasoline and natural gas also began entering northeastern Gaza through the Nahal Oz border crossing.

While food shortages have not been reported, human rights groups cautioned that fuel for generators powering hospitals and water pumping stations was running out after Israeli missiles struck Gaza’s power station.

By Sunday evening, long lines that had formed at gas stations in recent days had disappeared.