Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat has urged the international community to bring pressure on Israel to end the "military folly" after a series of deadly air strikes in Gaza. The Palestinian movement Hamas has vowed to avenge the deaths caused by five separate air strikes across Gaza on Monday. This latest wave of Israeli violence has deepened the gloom over the prospects of progress in the Middle East "roadmap". The peace plan, sponsored by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, known as the Quartet, now looks damaged beyond repair.
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"I appeal to the international community, the United Nations and the quartet to stop this military folly through which they (the Israelis) are looking to destroy our holy ground and our people," Arafat told a small group of journalists from his battered compound in Ramallah. The response in Israel to Monday's attacks has been mixed. Israeli newspapers on Tuesday warned that a wave of air strikes on Gaza was likely to prolong the conflict. One journal said the brutal wave of attacks was prompted more by a sense of humiliation after the killing of three Israeli soldiers rather than logic. |