Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed outrage on Sunday after Palestinian militants fired several mortar shells overnight at Israeli settlers and troop positions in the Gaza Strip, denouncing the attacks as a violation of the Sharm el-Sheikh accords.
"The firing was a flagrant violation of the understandings achieved at Sharm el-Sheikh, and it will be a central issue to be raised at my talks with President [George W.] Bush," a senior aide quoted the Israeli premier as saying ahead of yesterday's talks with the US leader in Crawford, Texas.
His comments came just hours after a flare-up in the southern Gaza Strip which saw militants from the radical Hamas movement firing more than a dozen mortar shells at the main Gush Katif settlement bloc after Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinian youths a day earlier.
The killing of the three youths in the southern Gaza town of Rafah was the most deadly incident in the territory since the main Palestinian militant groups agreed to a de facto truce in January.
It also cast a shadow over the commitments made by Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a landmark peace summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in early February, at which the two men declared an end to hostilities.
Israeli officials said Palestinian inaction against "the terror infrastructure" would be a key issue at Sharon's meeting with Bush yesterday.
"Abu Mazen [Abbas] is weak, he is someone who needs assistance," an official with the Israeli delegation told reporters en route to Texas. "We can only help someone who helps himself."
Rather than trying to co-opt the militant factions, such as Hamas and its smaller rival Islamic Jihad, Abbas needed to take firm action to disarm them "without playing into their hands," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"He [Abbas] is trying all sorts of things which didn't work in Lebanon or in Northern Ireland and it won't work here," he said. "They are pointing a gun at his head and that gun is loaded."
Yesterday's summit between Sharon and Bush was expected to focus squarely on Israel's forthcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip ahead of a return to the Mideast peace roadmap, which aims at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel has frequently insisted that the only way to return to the peace blueprint is for the Palestinians to dismantle the "terror infrastructure" and Sharon was expected to urge greater US pressure on Abbas during yesterday's summit.
Sharon's visit to Texas is his 10th to the US since Bush came to office in January 2001, but represents his first invitation to the "Western White House" in Crawford.
The two leaders are close allies but Bush has expressed impatience over Israel's ongoing settlement activity in the West Bank, as Washington tries to prod Israelis and Palestinians back toward the roadmap.
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