Israeli and Palestinian Leaders seek peace talks as Israel warns that its enemies are rearming

The rocket threat has also reduced the likelihood of any peace progress being made in the fall following Mr. Barak's statement this week that Israel won't be able to make a major withdrawal of its forces from the West Bank – something Abbas has been pleading for – for at least two years, the minimum time Barak estimates Israel needs to develop a missile interception system, Haaretz also reports.

"The things we see in Gaza do not allow us to change our actions in (the West Bank)," Barak was quoted by one of the participants as saying, referring to daily rocket fire at Israel from Gaza by Palestinian militants.

He said it would take about two and a half years to develop and deploy a defense system to protect Israel's center from potential rocket attacks from the West Bank.

All of this has led to an increase in tension between Israel and its neighbors. In an editorial on the birthday of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip, the right-leaning Jerusalem Post argues that Hamas is set to play a "spoiler" role in any peace negotiations.

What is Hamas's game? Its specific message over Schalit is that its demands will have to be met if Israel is ever going to secure his release. But its wider point is that nobody should delude themselves that it can be ignored when negotiations on the Israeli-Palestinian track are in the offing. It remains avowedly committed to a spoiler role at the first hint of progress.

…the Israeli government is also coming under a degree of pressure to acknowledge Hamas's growing weight and power and engage with it. Such interaction, it is suggested, is not just the only way to secure the release of Schalit, but also the only pragmatic means of grappling with a new reality of Hamas prominence.

But interaction now with an unreformed Hamas represents capitulation to terrorism, and can only further reduce any small likelihood of the Islamic group ever opting for reform. Meanwhile, it would discredit and further weaken the faint voices of genuine Palestinian moderation.

Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reports that Hamas is taking further steps to consolidate its control of the Gaza Strip by seeking to muzzle the press.

Dozens of journalists staged a sit-in in Gaza on Sunday, protesting against pressure on the media by the Islamist Hamas movement that took over the territory in mid-June.

On Friday three cameramen and an AFP photographer were briefly detained by Hamas after covering a demonstration by Hamas' rival, President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

Hamas forces fired in the air as they dispersed the rally and sought to detain two other cameramen but were prevented from doing so by other journalists.

Page: 1 | 2