US supports Gaza assault, but warns Israel on civilians

Wed Jun 28, 4:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States offered support for Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, blamed Hamas for the incursion, and urged the Palestinian militant group to free a captured Israeli soldier.

President George W. Bush's spokesman Tony Snow did however call on Israeli forces to safeguard civilians after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to use "extreme means" to free the teenaged conscript Gilad Shalit.

"Israel has the right to defend itself and the lives of its citizens," Snow told reporters.

"The hostage-taking and the attacks by Hamas last weekend have precipitated the current events in Gaza," he said. "As we have said since the attack, Hamas should release and return the kidnapped Israeli soldier immediately."

The offensive, which plunged much of Gaza into darkness after Israeli jets targeted a power station, is Israel's first since pulling its troops out of the enclave last year, ending a 38-year occupation.

"In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure," Snow said.

The State Department meanwhile said officials in Washington and Tel Aviv were working hard behind the scenes to deploy US "moral authority" to help end the crisis.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.

"We want to resolve that hostage-taking. That's what we all want to do. And we want to protect innocent life in doing that," he said.

But Ereli declined to say whether the United States was aware in advance of Israel's military strategy in Gaza, or had advised the Israeli government not to take certain actions.

The US comments came after Israel massed troops around Gaza airport and launched air strikes against a site Palestinian sources said was a training ground for militants from the armed wing of Hamas.

Olmert was quoted as saying by public radio that he would use "extreme means to bring Gilad home" but had no intention of reoccupying the Gaza Strip.

He also blamed the governing Hamas party for the escalation, and pointed out that there had so far been no Palestinian victims.

Israel believes that Shalit, captured Sunday in a raid by several Palestinian groups, is still in the impoverished coastal enclave.

The US statement was more noticeably robust in its support for Israel than an appeal for restraint by EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who urged the release of the soldier, but also called on Israel not to make the already dire plight of the Palestinians worse.

"Both sides need to step back from the brink before this becomes a crisis that neither can control," she said in a statement.

Though blaming Hamas for the deteriorating situation in Gaza, Snow said "all parties" ought to take steps to restore the security situation.

"It's the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority to stop all acts of violence and terror," Snow added. "Hamas has done the opposite: It's been complicit in perpetrating violence, terror and hostage-taking."

No casualties were reported in the strike on the militant camp in Rafah, but Israel said it was "starting to use more military means" to recover the soldier.

Two air strikes earlier targeted uninhabited areas in northern Gaza frequently used by Palestinian militants to launch rockets.

The Hamas government meanwhile proposed releasing the soldier in exchange for freeing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The Popular Resistance Committees, which claimed the kidnapping together with the armed wing of Hamas and the previously unheard of Army of Islam, have called for the release of women and juvenile prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for information on the 19-year-old soldier.

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