Fri Jun 6, 2008

TEL AVIV (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday raised the spectre of a full-scale military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip despite Egyptian attempts to mediate a truce.

"According to the information as it is now, the pendulum is much closer to tough military action," Olmert told journalists on arrival in Israel following a three-day trip to the United States.

His comments came a day after a worker was killed in southern Israel in a mortar attack claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, the Islamist movement that has run Gaza since it ousted forces loyal to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas a year ago.

But Olmert also suggested that the door to a negotiated truce was not completely closed.

He said his government was still considering whether to avoid getting "into a violent and hard conflict with the terror organisations in Gaza" or to launch "operations that would be much more aggressive and hard."

Israeli forces launched several raids after Thursday's attack.

On Friday, a military engineering unit operating armoured bulldozers on the Gaza side of the border was embroiled in a firefight with Hamas gunmen, the military said.

A member of Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was killed and an Israeli soldier was wounded in the exchange of fire.

Earlier on Friday at least 10 Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli air raid on a Hamas police post in the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.

Elsewhere, six Qassam rockets and four mortar rounds fired from Gaza slammed into southern Israel, an Israeli army spokesman said. Hamas confirmed four Qassam rockets had been fired. It was not immediately clear if they caused damage or injuries.

Violence in and around the impoverished sliver of land has continued despite Egyptian efforts to mediate a ceasefire and slow-moving peace talks with Abbas, who has held sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank only since his forces were ousted from Gaza.

At least 491 people, nearly all Palestinians and mostly Gaza militants, have been killed since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed in November, according to an AFP count.

The Israeli military said on Friday that Palestinians fired more than 2,300 rockets and mortar bombs at Israel in the past six months.

Thursday's attack has increased pressure on the government to act against Gaza militants, and Israeli media suggested a military offensive could be just days away.

"Israel's conditions for a truce are not bearing fruit in the way that could lead to a ceasefire," Olmert said before leaving Washington on Thursday.

Israel has demanded an end to rocket attacks and arms smuggling from Egypt, as well as progress in negotiations for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian militants in 2006.

Hamas for its part wants an end to the blockade of Gaza that Israel says is aimed at forcing militants to halt their attacks.

On Friday, hundreds of people gathered on the Gazan side of the closed Rafah border crossing with Egypt for a demonstration called by Hamas to protest against the Israeli blockade.

Hamas wants Egypt to open the border crossing -- the only gateway to Gaza not under Israeli control.

Around 500 Egyptian police were called in as reinforcements to ensure there was no repeat January's border breach, when Gaza militants blew open large sections of the border fence, sending hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pouring into Egypt to stock up on vital supplies.

It was resealed a few days later.

Egypt has been acting as mediator in the truce talks because Israel refuses to negotiate directly with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation.