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United States Urges Israelis, Palestinians To Find Path to Peace

Iran Materials 10 November 2006 15:42 (UTC +04:00)

(usinfo.state.gov) - The 18 civilian deaths in a recent Israeli attack in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun in the Palestinian Territories is a tragedy that highlights the urgent need for Palestinians and Israelis to resume their search for a path to peace, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said November 9.

There's nothing we can do to assuage the grief that friends and family are feeling. But the answer and the response is not more violence, McCormack told reporters in a briefing in Washington. The answer is to do what you can to work for a better way of life for the Palestinian people and for the Israeli people.

In Gaza, area residents are mourning the deaths of the 18 Palestinian civilians в€' 13 of whom are reported to be members of the same family в€' who were killed in an Israeli artillery barrage November 8. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has apologized for the incident, which initial investigations indicate was the result of a faulty weapons targeting system, reports Trend.

The incident occurred one day after Israeli forces completed an operation in the area to stop rocket attacks into Israeli communities bordering Gaza. The intended target, say Israeli defense officials, was a rocket-launching site staged near the accidentally targeted residential neighborhood.

There is a difference between something that is an awful accident in which innocent life is lost, McCormack said, and people going out and intentionally taking innocent life in the name of some political cause. There's no political cause that justifies that.

The United States remains firmly committed to a political horizon that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live together in two states side by side in peace and security, McCormack said, reporting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called both Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas to express her concern and offer condolences.

We believe President Abbas is a man of peace and that he is committed to peace, that he is committed to a better way of life for the Palestinian people, and that he is committed to doing what he can to provide security for the Palestinian people, McCormack said. However, he also criticized the Palestinian Authority's Hamas-led government, which refuses to recognize Israel and continues to allow militant activities within its borders.

What you need is a Palestinian government that is a partner for peace, McCormack said. We don't have that right now.

Meanwhile in New York, Qatar circulated a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council condemning the Beit Hanoun incident. The United States is participating in these discussions, McCormack said, but we don't think that any sort of one-sided resolutions are really the most productive way to address this issue.

In the wake of Bush's September 19 speech to the U.N. General Assembly, in which he reiterated the U.S. commitment to a two-state solution for peace in the Middle east, Secretary Rice and U.S. diplomats have been traveling extensively across the region, McCormack said. They have met with Israeli and Palestinian officials in an effort to help them restart peace talks, as well as to build support for the peace process with neighboring countries. (See related article.)

There is a real interest among other states in the region, among Arab states, in trying to find a way forward. And we are standing with them in that. They are committed to that. We are committed to that.

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