UN chief chastises Israel at 'crucial time' in peace process

On Wednesday, Israeli forces also bombed a smuggling tunnel Gazans use to evade the blockade imposed on them, witnesses told Reuters.

Hamas offered Israel a truce on Saturday in an effort to prevent a wider Israeli assault on Gaza, but Gaza militants and Israel have continued trading fire.

On March 25 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared to use “great force” against rocket and mortar attacks, Al Jazeera notes, and on Sunday an Israeli air strike killed two Gazan fighters. The strike prompted al-Quds Brigade, Islamic Jihad's armed wing, to threaten retaliation.

The recent clashes resemble the pattern of violence that escalated into the 2009 Israeli incursion into Gaza, an Israeli official warned last week. Still, both Israeli and Palestinian rulers seem reluctant to enter into a full-blown conflict on par with that one, The Christian Science Monitor reported on March 24.

Still, with both governments facing wary populaces, it appears unlikely for now that the violence will quickly escalate into a full-blown war. Gazans still blame Hamas for escalating the deadly war two years ago. And Israeli officials – despite absorbing a week of rocket attacks and yesterday's Jerusalem bombing that killed one person and injured 30 – find the idea of a broad offensive unappealing at a time when the peace process is moribund and the region is awash in protests. …

Palestinians believe that Hamas militants instigated the flare-up over the weekend [two weeks ago] to undermine prospects for an upcoming visit to Gaza by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss a unified Palestinian government with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah. That said, Hamas must be wary of still fresh public memory of the three-week war in which some 1,400 Gazans were killed, including hundreds of noncombatants.

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