ISRAELI AIRCRAFT hit two tunnels close to the Gaza border with Egypt yesterday as President Shimon Peres prepared to leave for Washington, where he will discuss Middle East peace prospects with President Barack Obama.
A Palestinian resident was wounded in the air strikes, which came in response to mistaken reports of the firing of a rocket by Palestinian militants into southern Israel earlier in the day. Rocket attacks have been relatively rare since the Israeli military offensive ended in January, but the sides have yet to agree to renew the ceasefire that had been in place until December.
Israeli officials said Mr Peres will tell the US president in their White House meeting on Monday that Jerusalem remains committed to peace despite the fact that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from the two-state solution adopted by the last government.
With contradictory messages coming from Israeli ministers on an almost daily basis, the prime minister is still in the midst of a comprehensive policy review on both the Palestinian and Syrian tracks, which aims to formulate a policy acceptable to the various coalition parties. Mr Netanyahu is expected to unveil the Israeli position when he meets President Obama in two weeks’ time.
It is rare that a new US president meets with his Israeli counterpart, who has a largely ceremonial role, before holding talks with the prime minister. But Shimon Peres is a veteran politician, well respected on the world stage and a Nobel peace prize laureate.
The Israeli president and prime minister met on Wednesday to co-ordinate the messages that Mr Peres will put across at next week’s White House talks. Some Israeli officials view the Peres-Obama meeting as an opportunity to “soften” the US president ahead of what may be a difficult encounter when Mr Netanyahu travels to Washington.
President Obama has made it clear that ending the diplomatic deadlock in the Middle East will be one of the top priorities for his administration. He has already hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah, and will this month meet Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli officials have expressed concern over some changes in Washington’s Middle East policy, such as the decision to engage with Damascus and Teheran and moves that indicate the US would accept Hamas as a partner in a Palestinian unity government.
Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper reported yesterday that Israeli officials were worried that President Obama may surprise Mr Netanyahu by demanding concrete Israeli concessions on issues such as West Bank settlement construction.
A report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs yesterday warned that at least 60,000 of the 225,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem risked having their homes destroyed by the Israeli authorities because they built their homes without permits. In response, the Jerusalem municipality issued a statement disputing the figures and stressed that for the first time in 50 years a master plan has been drawn up to address the housing crisis in all sectors of the city.