israel blames occupied Palestinians for blocking 'US peace efforts'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has infuriated Washington with plans to expand settlements in East Jerusalem, on Sunday accused the Palestinians of blocking US peace efforts.

His remarks came after the Palestinians reiterated their refusal to hold even indirect talks without a complete Jewish settlement freeze and following a flare-up of violence in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

“We continue to see that the Palestinians are hardening their positions. They do not show any sign of moderation,” Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly Cabinet meeting.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has ruled out holding any talks with Israel unless it freezes settlement construction in the West Bank including mostly Arab East Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

The impasse comes amid a surge of violence in Gaza, where two Israeli soldiers and, according to medics, one Palestinian, were killed on Friday in the deadliest clashes since Israel’s 22-day attack on Hamas ended in January 2009.

Another Palestinian was killed when tanks moved into the same area the next day, and witnesses said Israeli forces were conducting a limited operation there on Sunday, though no clashes or casualties were reported.

A minister from Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party, meanwhile, warned on Sunday that Israel would eventually “liquidate” Gaza’s Hamas rulers, who seized control of the territory after routing Abbas’s forces in June 2007.

“I am not setting a timetable, but we will not tolerate this regime continuing to strengthen itself militarily,” Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israeli public radio.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said Steinitz’s remarks “reflect the criminal intentions of the Zionist occupation government and confirm its continuing acts of state terrorism.” More