Israeli-Palestinian talks to go ahead

A young Palestinian runs past posters showing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leaders George Habash and Ahmed Saadat during a demonstration marking 40 days since the death of Habash and against Israeli military operations in Gaza, in the West Bank city of Jenin, on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Israeli-Palestinian talks will proceed this week despite a shooting attack at a Jerusalem religious seminary that killed eight Israelis, Israeli officials said. Police across the country were on alert yesterday for possible additional attacks, and security was high in public areas and at schools.

Israeli confirmed on Saturday that the talks would continue, but spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no official announcement. Hours earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel not to abandon peace efforts despite a recent escalation of violence.

The shooting attack in Jerusalem on Thursday, combined with relentless violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, have threatened the US-backed talks, meant to bring a final peace agreement by the end of the year.

Police Micky Rosenfeld said yesterday that officers across Israel were maintaining "a high level of security in general around public areas -- bus stations, centers of cities, market areas," malls and schools. Security forces had no information on specific attack plans, Rosenfeld said.

Israeli Minister Ehud Olmert, in his first response to the shooting attack, called it "horrible" and said it was carried out in "cold blood."

Militants rockets from Gaza and those involved in the shooting attack had the same purpose, Olmert said on Saturday.

He said that "The perpetrators of both intend to make our lives unbearable," speaking at an international women's day event outside Tel Aviv. "This won't happen."

Israel use both "military and diplomatic tools" to ensure its existence, Olmert said. He did not speak directly about the peace talks with the Palestinians.

Last week, Abbas briefly called off negotiations after more than 120 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, were killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza against rocket squads operating from the Hamas-controlled territory. But he resumed talks under pressure from visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and on Saturday he urged that negotiations continue.

"Despite all the circumstances we're living through and all the attacks we're experiencing, we insist on peace. There is no other path," Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abbas not mention the Jerusalem attack, which he had condemned earlier.

Israel not officially announce that talks would continue, but several officials said privately over the weekend that negotiations would proceed as planned. Yesterday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was due to meet with James Jones, a retired US general who is Washington's security envoy to peace talks.

Palestinian Saeb Erekat said Israel and the Palestinians would meet on Thursday with another US general assigned to monitor peacemaking progress.

Israel Abbas' West Bank government renewed negotiations, frozen seven years earlier, at an international conference in November in Annapolis, Maryland. Government spokesman Mark Regev said on Saturday that Israel "remains committed to the Annapolis framework" -- another indication talks would go on.

Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier wounded by Gaza militants in a border ambush on Thursday died yesterday, the military said. He was the second soldier to die from the attack, and the fourth soldier killed in Gaza this month.