Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday said he is "absolutely determined" to carry out his planned West Bank withdrawal, despite heavy fighting with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Olmert also ruled out negotiations or a prisoner swap with the Hamas-led Palestinian government to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier, calling the Islamic militant group a "terrorist bloody organization."
Speaking to foreign reporters, Olmert said separation between Israelis and Palestinians is "inevitable," adding the current round of violence in Gaza won't prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Olmert wants to withdraw from most of the West Bank by 2010 to allow the Palestinians to gain independence and to enable Israel to finalize secure borders.
"I haven't changed my basic commitment to the realignment plan," he said, referring to the pullout. "I am absolutely determined to carry out the separation from the Palestinians and establish secure borders."
If peace efforts remain stalled, he said, he will carry out the withdrawal unilaterally, just as Israel carried out a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip last year. As a first step, Olmert said he expects to begin uprooting unauthorized outposts in the West Bank in the near future.
Continued rocket fire out of Gaza, along with Israel's recent invasion of the area, has raised questions about whether Olmert can carry out the West Bank pullout. The withdrawal could put major Israeli population centers well within the range of Palestinian rockets.
But Olmert said the violence cannot halt a process of separating the Israelis and Palestinians that began with the Gaza withdrawal.
"We want to separate in a friendly manner and to live alongside each other ... in a peaceful way," he said. "If the terrorist organizations will impose a violent confrontation, both Israelis and Palestinians will have to bear the consequences. That can't stop the inevitable process of separation of Israelis and Palestinians."
Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip on June 28 following the capture of the Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, in a cross-border raid carried out by militants linked to the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Israel expanded the operation last week into northern Gaza to halt months of rocket attacks. Tanks and ground forces have entered the area, and Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes, leading to widespread destruction.
Olmert said Israel is not trying to topple the Palestinian government, though he said Hamas leaders are "directly involved in terror."
"We have no particular desire to topple the Hamas government as a policy. We have a desire to stop terrorists from inflicting terror on the Israeli people," he said, declining to give a timetable for the operation.
The Israeli invasion, arrests of Hamas Cabinet ministers and threats to assassinate the group's top leaders have prompted accusations that Israel is trying to topple the democratically elected government.
The Hamas-linked militants holding the soldier, as well as top Hamas leaders, have called on Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to help end the standoff. Olmert again ruled out a prisoner swap.
"Trading prisoners with a terrorist bloody organization such as Hamas is a major mistake that will cause a lot of damage to the future of the state of Israel," he said.
He focused much of his criticism on Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, whom Israel accuses of masterminding the capture of the soldier.
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