USMideast envoy meets with Abbas

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Mitchell arrived in the occupied West Bank's political capital of Ramallah for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a day after holding talks with senior Israeli leaders in Jerusalem. "It is important to consolidate a sustainable and durable cease-fire and encourage efforts in that regard," Mitchell told reporters after holding talks with Abbas.

The 75-year-old former U.S. senator said that goods had to flow into Gaza legally - with the participation of Abbas's Palestinian Authority - if efforts to prevent arms smuggling into the coastal strip were to be successful.

"To be successful in preventing illicit trafficking of arms into Gaza there must be a mechanism to allow the flow of legal goods and that should be with the participation of the Palestinian Authority," Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying.

Raid wounds children

Mitchell was not meeting with Hamas, which the U.S., Israel and European Union have blacklisted as a terrorist group. But a flare-up of Gaza violence underscored the more immediate priority - shoring up the cease-fire. Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel yesterday, and residents of the south Gaza town of Khan Younis said an Israeli airstrike there wounded at least 18 Palestinians, including 11 schoolchildren and a pregnant woman.

On Wednesday Israeli warplanes struck Gaza smuggling tunnels and a weapons factory. There were no reports of casualties, according to a report by the Associated Press.